T shirt quilt ready to layer

The T shirt quilt is ready to layer when I get the backing fabric. I am going to look for food themed fabric.

It is in 4 long vertical sections right now and that is how I will quilt it. The two outside vertical T shirt rows have the  borders sewn on and the second row from the left has the sashing sewn to the  left edge and the third row  from the left has sashing on both edges. You can't see the very bottom of the quilt here but that is the bottom row of T shirts. The end pieces of sashing are various widths and everything will be trimmed to match the left hand section which will be the standard for trimming. There will be 3 long vertical  seams and I will be finishing those seams on the back of the quilt by hand. I have enough of the striped fabric to make bias binding which I think always looks good with striped fabric. I have seen some food themed fabric on line but first I am going to check the local quilt shops.

I  was surprised how nicely the T Shirt sections behaved with the interfacing fused to the back.

T shirt quilt

It has probably been at least 2 years since my grandson picked out some of his T shirts to put in a quilt. About a year ago I decided it was time to reduce the bulk so they did not take up so much room in the closet. This past week I bought 10 yards of lightweight interfacing and decided that it was about time to make the quilt. I am thinking it would have been more meaningful to make it right away when I got the T shirts.
 This is my first T shirt quilt and I think I would opt for more uniform sizes if I ever do this again. Of course, that would not always be easy as the person choosing the shirts would most likely want all different sizes of the (artwork?).

Right now I am putting the long vertical rows together and to make them all the same length I will adjust the width of the top and bottom sashing strips to acheive that. The rest of the sashing is 2 1/2 inches. The easiest place I can lay them all out is on my bed and that has disturbed Jack on his computer; I have to squeeze past him to get to the other side of the bed. He really is pretty good natured about it but every time he looks annoyed I get a bit irritated.  Poor Jack, if I perceive that he is annoyed with me I get grumpy.

There will be 4 vertical  rows which I plan to quilt in sections.

I found this  multicolor stripe with a brown background. This quilt needs some color and I almost bought a very colorful splashy print but changed my mind at the last minute and opted for this more conservative stripe. I had originally planned to cut the long vertical sashing strips and the side borders on the lengthwise grain so the stripes would run lengthwise but when I tried it with the stripes the other way I changed my mind.

Some things really do need to be completed in a timely manner; I  am not sure he even cares about this anymore. I will finish it anyway and I know that if he isn't exactly thrilled about it he will  never let me know.

I meant to make some valentines but then I had some problems with vertigo and I never got around to them. I still had some ideas in my head that I wanted to play with and I wanted to do something with some color.

I got out my box of solid fabrics and ironed an 8 inch square onto some freezer paper and started to draw. I never really intended to do anything other than experiment with drawing on colored fabric and I just got carried away and doodled all around the edge and the inside. Hmm... I wonder what it would look like if I layered  it up and quilted it with red thread; just a few of the straighter lines to see how the red  thread looks. Well that didn't tell me much; lets see what a little more stitching looks like.  And here we have it. Now if I had planned ahead I would not have made all  those tiny hearts to stitch around the outside edge in fact, all of those little hearts were a real pain to stitch. But, you know, I like it. Was it fun to do? Actually, it was, kind of.  The red on pink leaves something to be desired, it needs some white and maybe a little sparkle. I should do something with those little unconnected dots and the unstitched hearts on some of the lines. When you work with black and white leaving tiny elements unstitched works better because the ink  is the same color as the thread.  I am not so red hot at french knots, I tried it and took them all out. Maybe a few beads would work although I know from experience that the term "not so red hot" doesn't even begin to apply to my skill at beading. Maybe I will just leave this as it is and move on to the next experiment. Not every experiment has to turn out to be something.

Mug mats

Wednesday is my daughter in law's birthday. I finished up these mug mats to give her. She saw  some that I had given my daughter last  summer and indicated that she would  like some. At Christmas she guessed that one of the gifts was mug mats (it  wasn't); so... I finally got them done.  Last spring I gave her place mats that I made from our block  of the month demos and these match the place mats.
It is good to finish some of the things that have been hanging over my head.
sometimes it is good to be forced to stay home where I have to look at the things that I  need to finish (or start).

Not much sewing going on.

There has not much sewing going on here most of the week. I have been having some more problems with vertigo and it has cramped my style.

Last Sunday I didn't get to church,  Tuesday I didn't get to Friendship group, Wednesday I didn't get to Bible study. Thursday I felt really good and my daughter came over and gave me a perm. About the time we  finished with the perm my friend Sue came for a visit and when we  were  sitting  and talking I turned my head and the room started to spin. Sue got more than she bargained for. Today I stayed home from our quilt group at church because I worried about getting there and having a problem. I have a doctors appointment Monday morning at 8. In between being dizzy and nauseated and sleeping I didn't get a whole lot  done. I was looking forward to some Quilt Along with Melody  I was particularly interested in trying some ferns like on her  Feb 7 post but that didn't happen.

 



back

 I did work  on this  little quilt and I finished it today after my second nap. It is for our supply of baby quilts at church. I really didn't like this very much when I was putting it together. The blue in the blocks is not quite so bright as it looks here and it just looked too bland to me but after I started to quilt it I began to like it. It is not the bright colors that I am usually drawn to but it is kind of sweet and restful. It has a sweet little Pooh Bear print in the bands between the rows of blocks and a different one from the same line on the back.  Sometimes it is a nice change to work with something that someone else picked out. 

So this is another finish for February. 

This week



6 .5 x 6.5

I spent my sewing time this week getting a few small Zentangle inspired pieces quilted and finished. 

 This little circle is the first thing I finished. I had previously quilted the lines in the circle and if you enlarge the photo you can see that sometimes I strayed from the drawn lines.

I finished the 2 hearts that were done using the same basic heart shape but one was filled in with fabric that had a  similarity to Zentangle designs and the other I drew the designs to fill in the heart with a pen right on the fabric.  I did a little better staying on the lines when I quilted this one.

11.5 x 11.5 and 12 x 12



25 x 25

This is the last one I finished. I did a little hand quilting on the circles in motifs that were not connected.

I am not sure why I have chosen to work so much with black at this stage of my life; it certainly makes things a lot more difficult. 

I think I am ready to work with some color.

Organization and sewing

I have finished organizing in my sewing room and have even gone through all the drawers in my desk. I am disappointed that after almost a month of working at it I have not reclaimed enough space to get rid of one of the shelf units  in my sewing closet. However I do have a bit more shelf space and things are much easier to find.

I tackled the hall closet and that still  needs more work but I did go through all of the stuff in these drawers. I bought these drawer units a long time ago and they were never quite what I wanted but they were the best I could come up with at the time. They work pretty well but waste some space which is at a premium here in our apartment. Nothing was where it belonged  and there was a lot of junk that is now in the trash. Yesterday, I had the contents of these 3 units spread out all over 2 tables and my desk when my daughter called and asked if I was up to having 2 of the great grandsons visit for a while. I put the drawer units back in the closet and everything that was scattered all over for sorting went into a clothes basket in my linen closet. Jack was amazed at how clean the room was in such a short time. The boys played in there with Play-doh for almost 2 hours. Too bad they we were having so much fun I forgot to take pictures.
Today I tackled the drawers again and the clothes basket is empty and the drawers are  labeled with the correct contents.

This week I also worked on our blocks for the BOM for our group at church. I needed to make the 12 inch and 6 inch blocks step by step before I handed out the cutting instructions. As you can see the larger block needs a bit of revision, which will be the second time I had to redo it; the first time I had one of triangle  units going in the wrong direction. The blocks spin in opposite directions on purpose as an illustration  of how it matters where you draw the stitching lines when making 3 piece triangle units.

 

Repurposing

Today I was putting things away and tidying up my sewing room because tomorrow someone is coming to change our phone service and I am not sure what we will have to move out of the way. I figure the more order there is to begin with the less problems. During my decluttering I made a pile of things I was going to finish to get them out of the way. Once upon a time I was part of an  online block swap group and one of the things we swapped were 25 patch charm blocks made with 2 1/2 inch squares. I just sewed mine all together as they were, without sashing or alternate blocks etc. I was going to layer it up and quilt it and use it for a car quilt. Just something to have in the car to use for whatever. I decided not to do that after all and put in the stack of things to give away, perhaps as a prize to another unsuspecting winner of a race or something.

This is what it looks like now.

One of the other things I was moving around was a little neck pillow I made when I took our old bed pillows apart and washed the covers and the stuffing and made some throw pillows. Earlier today I was piecing some strips to make a cover for my neck pillow and I didn't like the way it was going and shoved it all in a bag.

That quilt top caught my eye and I cut a piece out of it and layered it up with some no so hot fabric. I had a pretty big piece of it and had kept it because it was big. I layered it up with a smallish piece of leftover batting and quilted it with those curvy lines and here is my little pillow now.  I actually like it.

 So I used used 4 things that were just cluttering my sewing room, the quilt top, the backing, the batting and the pillow and.......

 I learned something. When I quilted my Jellyroll Race quilt I should have stitched my curvy lines between the horizontal seams instead of on top of them(no, I am not ripping out those horizontal stitching lines). This has been time well spent. I have some plans for cuttng up and using the rest of that quilt top and that no so hot fabric, more to follow.  

Another Finish

This is my second finish for 2012 and actually the first one that I started in 2012. It is my Jellyroll Race quilt. The photo below is the back of the quilt. the colors show up a bit more true in that one.
I worried that the ripples would not quilt out because of the bias edges  in the setting triangles but it is nice and flat on the back as well as the front.

I quilted it in rows of curvy lines about 2 inches apart. That shows up better on the back. I followed the seam lines on the front and the quilting doesn't show up as well in the horizontal lines. No matter, it is not the quilting that  is the star here but the fabric. This was a Moda Central Park Jellyroll and I really love it. The the binding is the orange print that I used in the blocks on the back.

This is a closeup of the block  on the back. The way the yellow with  orange and purple print blends into the yellow and white print might not appeal to everyone but it appeals to me; there is still some colorwash quilter in me.
I gave away all of my 2 inch 1 1/4 inch colorwash squares. I know I would not use them again but I might make 9 patch  colorwash quilts  again and for that I will use strip piecing.

Jellyroll quilt

This is not a mistake!  I am piecing a panel for the back of my Jellyroll quilt in order to make it wide enough. I made 4 -12 inch blocks and after I put them together with the setting triangles I realized it was longer than the quilt. I had 2 of the side setting  triangles left from cutting 2 large squares into quarters and I cut them to use on the end corners. I  knew was going to cut through the last blocks on either end and add a plain strip in order to have it look like it fit right I planned it that way.  These triangles would not have been large enough to sew on along the bias edges if I had not intended  to cut the ends off the blocks. Here it is on the right with the block trimmed and a straight piece

added.













I am ready to split the backing and add the panel and  then I can layer up the quilt and start quilting. It looks rippled here and I am hope that will  all quilt out.

I found this  yellow and white fabric yesterday at Joann's for the back. I went to get needles and batting and decided to have a look at the yellow  fabrics. This has a nice weight and a nice hand to it and at 40% off it is a winner. I like the way the blocks blend into it. I bought the Central Park prints (orange print and the yellow with purple and orange) last week at the quilt shop but there was only about 3/4 yard left on the bolt of each of them. I had no plans for it but I was ready to buy something bright and cheerful

Sometime things work out just right. I hope those ripples do.

Sewing Again

I am finally back to sewing again. About 8 PM yesterday my machine went back in its table home. Everything that is going back in the closet is in the closet and all my furniture has been moved back to where it belongs.  I have a pile of stuff on one of my tables that I am going to sort through and then decide what to do with it. Other than that I am done for now with the big project. I still have to go through all my notebooks and magazine holders on the two lower shelves of my bookcase (it looks like the bookcase will be staying). That sorting will be done one by one and when I have eliminated thrown out all the clutter I will decide how to combine things so I have more space. I suspect I will gain about 50% of the space being taken up right now. That would give me the entire bottom shelf.

During the decluttering I came across a box of binding pieces, I moved them to a see through box and today sewed a bunch of them together and used them on this Disappearing 9 Patch quilt. The first 3 photos show 3 different borders I was auditioning; in the end I decided to just put the binding on. It really is a pleasant scrap quilt and the backing is large blocks of a lot of different floral fabric that I really like but those Prairie Points and piano keys are destined to go on other quilts and I never really liked that brown floral for a border. But this is just going to be a utility quilt I don't need or want to spend more time making another border or buy more fabric for a border. It is what it is!

  It is finished!  My first finish for 2012.

Almost ready to sew again

I am almost ready to put my machine back in it's table  and sew again. I have not sewed a stitch since the Jellyroll Race last Saturday and I have worked at sorting and purging all week. Once I moved everything around and make a more orderly workspace I made a lot more  progress. On Friday I thought that all  the boxes had been gone through and sorted but I found 2 more baskets on top of my bookcase that had stuff in them. One had Friendship  blocks which I am going to use soon. Really! The other one was a real mess. It appeared to  be something I swept off my cutting table to get it out of sight because I had company coming, in fact, I know that is exactly what I did. There were wrinkled pieces of various sizes, all smallish ,and squares that had been cut and 2 inch and 1 1/5 inch strips that I had cut. I was tempted to shove it all in a bag and get back to it later or, better yet, I was tempted to dump it. However there is that part of me that thinks maybe there is that 2 1/4 inch by 4 1/8 wonky scrap that is the last shred of my most favorite of all time fabric and I can't live without it. It took a long time to go through it but it is done and even though I didn't find that shred of favorite fabric I did find some things that I am glad I didn't throw out. (even though I know I would never have missed them).

I decide to give up my box of squares and rectangles for the Donna Poster pattern and I found a taker. Yeah!!!!   

I also  decided to give this up. These trays hold my 2 inch squares of colorwash fabrics. I have little stacks of 2 inch squares of each fabric and I keep the trays stacked up with a strap  around them so they stay together. They only take up abut 20 inches in width on the shelf. These are five of 8 trays of 2 inch fabric.  I found a taker for these today too. I am a happy quilter!!!!

I also have 5 trays of 1 1/4 inch squares that no one seems to want. These 3 little post card quilts are about 4 x  6; they are made with 35 of the little 1.25 inch squares (finished size is 3/4 inch. I made a bunch and these are the only ones I have left. They are up on the bulletin board in my sewing room. When I cut 2 inch colorwash squares I used to throw away anything less than 2 inches. One of friends used to pick them out of my wastebasket and save them. I thought she was crazy. One day I found myself doing the same thing because what I saw when I looked at them just sparked something. I made quite a few small pieces and experimented with different ideas. They did  present a challenge when sewing them together because the  pieces were so small. However I did have fun with the post card size as it was quick and easy to arrange the squares. I hung on to both of these size squares for a long time  but I have not made any thing with them for  years. Time to move on.

This last photo shows 1 of three sections that I put together at  least 3 or 4 years ago, using my box of 3 and  3 1/5 inch squares. Because it is large I planned to quilt it in 3 sections and then quilt the borders and add them. These 3 sections have been hanging behind the door to my sewing room and I was going to give it up but as I was looking at it I realized that I really like it and it has fabrics that go back to my quilting beginnings. It has tons of florals from my colorwash collection. It probably has fabric from every quilt I made for family members up to that time; for that reason alone I guess it is a "treasure". I think I have to keep finish this one.