Eating the Elephant

Happy Sunday!  I'm feeling a bit better today. Still sneezing and congested, but the nasty sore throat is gone. After finishing the laundry, 

I worked a bit on Michael's T-shirt quilt. I finished another step (like eating that elephant, one bite at a time). This is the project that I worked on at our Thimbles Club meeting last Saturday. The black sashing strips around the T-shirts are finished. I'm now ironing the strips and spraying them with 505 basting spray. 

While sewing yesterday and today, I listened to the end of the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on  my Ipod. The audio version is superb. There were 5 different folks doing voices including the actress Juliet Mills. Now that I've finished listening to it, I'm at a bit of a loss at what I should listen to next. Any suggestions?

"The Crud"

Hi Friends,

Please ignore my silence. I have several ideas for my blog, but I've picked up some kind of virus or  "head cold." I've been sneezing even with an antihistamine. My throat is raw. I thought I'd get lots of sewing and blogging in today, but..... I keep returning to the couch to rest.

Here's hoping that I'm over the worst by tomorrow. My current project, Michael's graduation T-shirt quilt is calling from the sewing room. 

The weather guys are predicting snow tomorrow in Georgia. What a shock that will be to our flowering trees and plants. 

A Word .... Inspiration Occurs!

 Don't you hate it when you have a project that you HAVE to work on when another project is whispering in your ear, Work on me, Work on me? I have 3 or 4 projects that must be completed by May. One of these projects is the blocks with author signatures that our fourth graders from last year sent to their favorite authors. They are now fifth graders. I want them to see their quilt before they finish the school year in May.  The blocks are six inch squares. We have 23 blocks to include in the project. My first plan was to just make 5 rows of 5 blocks each with sashing and cornerstones between the blocks. Our art teacher is extremely artistic and gifted in design. I spoke to her about illustrating two blocks so I would have 25 blocks that I needed for this arrangement. In our discussion, she mentioned adding more color. Inspiration finally occured! With that one word, color, I knew immediately what to do with this project. At home that evening, I dug through my fabric stash to find more fabric to coordinate with my library border fabric. 

 This cheddar insisted on coming home with me in December from Sweet Home. It is absolutely perfect for the background to arrange the blocks. Even though these aren't t-shirts, I decided to use the arrangement from Sharon's T-shirt pattern. See this past blog entry.  I whittled it down to four fabrics for the sashing around the blocks. I used the black and green that I purchased from Sweet Home for this project plus some red from my Christmas Toile scraps and blue that I found in my stash for the  strips to sew around the blocks. I worked on the blocks this weekend. 

Yesterday, I brought the background piece and the blocks to school. We pushed two library tables together. My art teacher worked her magic on the arrangement of the 

blocks after we were finished with students for the day. The quilt top is ready for me to machine stitch the blocks down. I even have the matching thread for each of the four colors. The project is sitting next to my sewing machine. It is patiently waiting to become a Real quilt top.

A bit of Progress

I actually made some progress on a couple of my sewing projects this weekend. I finished putting the sashing strips around the blocks on  one of the T-shirt quilts I need to make this Spring. I measured and assembled the background section. Drat! I cut the borders wrong - well that's not quite right. I cut them the size the pattern said to cut them, but decided I'd like the borders wider. I thought I had enough fabric, but was short just a bit. I check with our friend Melisa at Sweet Home Quilt Shop , but

 she didn't have that particular fabric. I called Intown Quilters where my friend purchased the fabric. They had what I needed and put it aside for me. Here are some of the blocks on this project.

 I haven't taken a picture of the background yet. I still have two borders to sew on. My friend will then pick up the blocks and background and arrange the blocks (sort of like scrapbooking) This step is not my strength so I'll let her fight with it. After that I'll just have to sew down the blocks. Easy! Then bring it to our friend, PJ, to be quilted.

Gretchen worked on a Valentine's Day project on our last sewing day. I had a project with the same fabric, same charm pack, but a different pattern in my UFO dungeon. I took my Valentine's project  out and worked on it a bit. I had to trim some of the snowball blocks. I put the blocks up on my felt design wall. Not bad. I'm liking this project. The blocks are not sewn together. Borders need to be added, too. 

I have another project to report on, but Blogger is being difficult with uploading pictures. I'll post that project tomorrow. 

Stash Enhancement

It was so much fun!!! Adding fabric to my stash and another project to my list. Yes, I'm headed in the wrong direction, but.... I was helping a friend. That sounds like a good one doesn't it :)  A quilting friend is downsizing her stash. She had a wonderful garage sale on Friday. Actually, this is her second sale. She also had a table at the guild sale in July. Yes, I must confess. I attended all three sales. I couldn't attend the last couple of sales at Sweet Home (I hated missing the last Freaky Friday this weekend ) so this is my consolation prize. I purchased some yardage for backs. The lime green flannel will be cozy on the back of a project. I've been thinking of doing a red and white project. I've resisted in the past,

 but the kit with backing and pattern was too much for me. The pattern is from a American Patchwork & Quilting Calendar from 2004. I actually have the calendar with the directions. But this one is not the only red and white kit that spoke to me. Brenda who blogs as the Quilting Cowgirl met me at the sale. There was another kit with red and neutral fabrics that we both liked. There was fabric for two lap quilts. We purchased this  kit and will split it. It will be fun to work on it together. 

My sewing room has been a wreck. I've not put away projects or newly aquired fabric. Yesterday, I realized that because my room was such a mess I was reluctant to sew. This afternoon I made some progress. I put all the projects and fabric on my sewing table away. I put books and magazines back on the shelf. Much better!!!  I did spend a couple of hours working on one of the T-shirt quilts for this year. I ironed the stablizer on the back of the shirts and then trimmed the shirts.  Next time, I'll begin sewing the frames around the T-shirts. The strips are cut and ready to be sewn. 

T-Shirt Quilts

Our youngest  son will be a Senior in High School this year.  T-Shirt quilts are quite popular here at high school graduation time. I've saved his favorite T-shrits since he was in kindergarten. Sunday, I pulled all the t-shirts out of their hiding place. I had Michael go through the shirts to begin choosing the ones that will be in his quilt. He found it hard to believe that he actually wore some of those tiny shirts. We smiled at the Rugrats shirt with Tommy and Dil. Harrry Potter, The Ninja Turtles, and lots of videogame shirt were chosen for his quilt. Now, you might think I'm starting this a bit early. Michael's quilt is not the only one that I need to make this year. I have three to make before the end of May. Friday, I took him to Intown Quilts to choose background and border fabric. He wanted really "bland" fabric, but I think what we choose will work great. He told me " that what seems like five minutes in a quilt shop for me is really a long time."   He brought his Ipod and was very patient :)

I also have to make a T-shirt quilt for a friend's daughter. I had her do some of the cutting of the T-shirt. We've chosen fabric for her quilt. Her T-shirts are a bit boring so  we chose bright fabric, blacks, pinks and greens. 

The third quilt is for a teen who is a gymnist. She wants to use her competition leotards. That should be interesting and different.

This is the first T-shirt quilt that I made. It was made  for my previous elementary school. I collected T-shirts from the years that I was not at the school. The pattern designer Sharon Henderson taught a class at my LQS so I was blessed to have her quidance on this quilt. It remained at the school when I moved to my new school this past year. 

This quilt was made for my friend's son. He had almost too many t-shirts. He had some interesting shirts so it was fun to work on.