T-Shirt Quilt: Finished!

The t-shirt quilt is finally finished up! And I got to use a clothesline to take photos yesterday while it was somewhat sunny out!  Unfortunately, the clothesline is in a valley that doesn't get much sun on winter afternoons, but at this time of year, who can complain about even THIS much light?? :)

Pete's T-shirt Quilt

As I mentioned before, this quilt is for Pete, a good friend of mine from college.  He lost his brother to cancer several years ago and asked me if I could make a t-shirt out of his brother's old shirts.  I was scared - the main quilt material is really a priceless, irreplaceable thing!  Plus, I'm not generally a fan of t-shirt quilts - usually they're just too busy.  But the solid t-shirts turned out to be really nice!  I used fusible interfacing on each shirt to stabilize them (I recently found even lighter weight interfacing than used on the shirts - it would probably give it a better drape with the thinner stuff, but this will be a nice cozy couch blanket).  Pete designed the quilt layout himself and I think it's fantastic with the color gradient!  The center block is his brother's hockey jersey and the block on the upper right is the Team M-Power logo.  The team has participated in many LiveStrong challenges, thousands and thousands of dollars for the cancer charity. 

The only printed shirt in the whole quilt!

I was really nervous about using the hockey jersey.  At least with the t-shirts, I could fudge something if I screwed up cutting.  If I screwed up cutting the hockey jersey, it could be problematic.  And I was worried it would melt when I put the interfacing on it.  And I was worried about quilting it.  It turned out to not be nearly as much of a big deal as I anticipated!  I avoided sewing over the numbers and just quilted around them.  They seemed too stiff for the needle to effectively go through them.

A nice backwards "13" on the back

The quilt sashing and backing are Kona Basil and the binding is Kona Khaki.  I hand stitched the binding then machine top stitched, just for extra security.  Plus I think it looks nice with the extra detail.

Blowing in the wind...

Overall, I'm really pleased with it.  And it's a great "guy" quilt!  I always find everything I make being a little on the feminine side.  Not this quilt!

So now the big question is, "How the heck do I get this to Delaware?"  I'm not going there any time soon.  I've never mailed a quilt before.  I'm so scared that it will be damaged or lost!  What's the best method?  US Mail, UPS, FedEx?  What's the most reasonable price?  What's the best way to package it?  Any feedback would be much appreciated!

-Melissa