This is a good project for a beginning quilter or an easy, quick project for someone more experienced with sewing. I have done several of these that I have given as gifts or kept for myself. If you want it to have a more cohesive design, you can buy fabric to match each T-shirt, but this is also a great project to clear out some of your scraps of fabric. The picture above is of a quilt I made for myself using T-shirts from shows I had been in or costumed for. I’m currently working on making one out of my husband’s college t-shirts.
The first thing I always do is pull out old shirts I want to use for my patches. I usually do 12 or more depending on the size, but with 12 shirts, your quilt will be 3 squares by 4 squares. I use pinking shears to cut the shirt designs out, that way you don’t have to finish the edges and if you use a stretch-stitch (zig-zag or other patterned stitch) the shirts won’t fray. I recommend cutting the shirts in a shape similar to the design, that way you don’t have to worry about each one being cut the same way. For example, I had a shirt with a Christmas tree design so I cut that shirt in the shape of a Christmas tree (see the picture to the left). Throw the rotary cutter away, and do what feels right (at least for this part). The next step is gathering fabric and cutting squares. 
I cut my squares all the same size, of course, so they easily line up, but the size depends on the size of the shirt applique. My squares are usually between 16 and 20 inches. The most recent T-shirt quilt I made was a lap quilt for my mom; it had several bigger T-shirts with large designs that had been my dad’s. Because of the size of these, I needed 20” squares. If you are a beginner, pull out the cutting mat and rotary cutter, and cut one piece of fabric at a time. I usually cut a few pieces at a time, but it’s important to line them up correctly. If you are a stickler for the rules of quilting, do it your own way…my mom and grandmother would kill me if they saw me cut 4 at a time!
I usually cut the strips of fabric for the border at the same time I cut the squares to get all the cutting out of the way at once. These are however wide you want them to be, but I do 3 or 4 inches wide and however long your squares are. Because I usually use a black or dark neutral fabric, I like to add a square of colored fabric from some of the T-shirts to add a splash of color to the borders.
Once you have all your pieces, it’s time to sew! I start by pinning the appliques to the squares. I pin from the middle of the applique to ensure it doesn't wrinkle or pucker. Once they are pinned, I sew them on using a decorative stretch-stitch. I then lay all the pieces out on the floor and decide based on color and pattern, which squares should go where. Next, I piece together all the squares and border pieces. I make long strips of border and long strips of squares (with border pieces in between) and sew them all together. I save the perimeter border pieces for the binding and attach that as the very last step.Once you have sewn the front together, it’s time to attach the back. I lay the fabric for the back right side down and place the batting on top. I place the front of the quilt on the top and pin like crazy. The next step is to “stitch in the ditch” which means to go back and stitch over the seams, sewing all layers together. Because it is tricky, I have attached several links that explain how to best attach the batting and the quilt back with the binding.
http://www.oliveandollie.com/2011/04/tutorial-how-to-attach-quilt-binding-by.html
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/quilt/msg0619265317616.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wprg5vzkuGw
http://www.momsview.com/discus/messages/21999/31128.html
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