A Power Tool that is not a Sewing Machine

Today, we finish up the T-shirt quilted wall art project using some hardware not normally found in a quilter’s studio: a staple gun.

Prepare your stretched canvas for the big frame up by spraying the surface with 505 Temporary Fabric Adhesive. Add a layer of quilt batting to the top that has been cut to the exact dimensions of the top. Press the batting down lightly to make sure it has made contact with the canvas below. Now, bring your quilt top to the canvas and center it on the quilt batting. Use straight glass head pins to pin the top to the batting, just to keep it place. Turn the canvas over so that you're looking at the back. Staple one corner, and then the one diagonal to it. Repeat for the other side.

Spray basting with 505 is the best way to make this step work. It'll keep the layers from shifting as you staple the completed quilt to the artist's canvas.

Gently pull some of the side fabric to the middle of the canvas frame and staple. Repeat on the other side. Repeat the process on the top and bottom. Continue gently pulling and stapling — each time repeating on the opposite sides of the frame.

You can finish the back with a nice piece of fabric if you like, or use brown craft paper as they do in framing shops. Don’t forget to sign and date the back.

Install framing hardware onto the back, and pick a place to display your new up-cycled T-shirt. It has now become quilted wall art to last through time, and quite possibly, space.

This step requires time and patience to keep the tension around the wall quilt more or less even.

Ready to hang and enjoy. The shirt off his back is now on my son's wall.

I’ll be back next month with some back-to-school dorm-room ideas, which will help continue your run as the coolest quilt parent on this, or any other, planet.

Until then, enjoy the journey —  where ever it takes you and know that occasionally you can use a power tool that is not a sewing machine for your quilting project.