First of all, and this may be a stupid question, but do you quilt the whole thing before you put the binding on?
yes, and always pin baste the whole quilt first to avoid shifting and always quilt from the CENTER out.. to avoid odd bunches int he fabric.

I also quilt the entire top before the binding, but instead of pins I use Sullivan's Basting Spray.  I don't often recommend name brands, but this one is really the best.  You can find it online or at a quilt store.  It comes in a pink can.  This for me works better than pins, and can be rolled up and then ironed if you don't finish all your quilting in one sitting. 

I admit that I don't know how to hand sew, so I do all my bindings totally by machine.  I sew it onto the back first, then fold over and sew to the front.  I am happy with the results, and find it for me to be neater and faster.  Once I did a few, the results are pretty even and it is easy to avoid any mistakes.  Try both methods and do what feels right for you!   

Don't know if this is too late or not...

You might want to test the color fastness of the embroidery thread, especially if it is red, purple or similar dark color.   Just dampen a paper towel and blot against the embroidery.  Check to see if any of the color has transfered to the paper towel.

I also always machine wash quilts for the first time with a color catcher sheet (http://www.shoutitout.com/family_catcher.asp) on cold water.  The cold water will help set the colors and the color catcher sheet will help if there are any bleeds. 

Good luck!

Cool!  The Gee's Bend on has potential to be very stunning, but I also really like the scrappy rail fence one.  It looks like a quilt that is meant to be loved and used.  Beautiful.

This is really beautiful!  I love the colors and the pattern is great, I will see if my library has that book.  Lucky baby!

If you are doing free motion quilting, you will want to drop your feed dogs (or tape them off if you can't lower them).  Also it helps to use a free motion or darning foot, as it will give you some room to see around your needle.  And some machines have a middle position for your foot.  That works best.  It is easy to tense up with free motion too, so remember to keep your shoulders loose and practice, practice, practice.     It does take a little bit of time to get use to. 
And for free motion, when you are starting out, make one stitch and then draw your bobbin thread up through the top and do a few stitches in place.  This will lock your treads, but make sure with both loose ends of the treads on top, where you can hold them out of the way for a few stitches, so you don't end up with a big thread mess on the bottom.  Does that make sense? 

If you are doing stitch in the ditch, there really isn't any trick to it at all.  All the settings should be normal just like you were doing regular sewing. 

How many different fabrics are you going to use?

I cut most of my fabric after I have folded selvage to selvage and then selvages to the fold (so you have four layers of fabric).  Trim the edge to even, and make 6.5 inch strips.
Selvage to selvage is about 42 inches of usable fabric, so out of each strip you will get 6 squares at 6.5 (42/6.5) inches. 
With your measurements below, you will need 100 squares total.  So you would need 17 strips total (100/6).  17 strips at 6.5 inches each is 110.5 inches or a little over 3 yards.  BUT you have to make sure that the cuts you get will be enough to cut how ever many 6.5 inch strips you want... 

If you wanted to use say, 6 fabrics, you would use 3 strips of each fabric.  So that would be about 20 inches of each fabric (3x6.5).  But I would get about 22-24 inches to be sure. 

Let me know if that makes any sense or if you have any more questions!

I like the contrasting tape on the purple backing alot.

That was my first though too!  I love the patchwork quilt, and the dark purple binding really makes it all come together.  So pretty.

What a beautiful and fun project!  I would also like to hear more about the portrait challenge.  Also, is the blue fabric appliqued on?

Very cute!  The fishbowl pattern is so fun, and I love the cat at the bottom.

I have no clue what other fabric would fit in more with metal band shirts 

What about plaid flannel or anything solid in color?  Like if a bunch of your tshirts are black or white, you could use a solid dark red color.  Depending on your pattern, the weight difference between the tshirts and denim (esp jeans) might be hard to work with. 

Posted in the completed works forum is this metal tshirt quilt top which is where I might have thought of the plaid flannel:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=42873.0