A T-Shirt Quilt

One of the things I really like to do is make T-Shirt quilts ... I know, I know ... maybe I should go lie down until the feeling passes, right?  I love the whole prepping of the t-shirts, the layout, the sewing, and finally the quilting.  I've told myself that the next T-Shirt quilt will be a 'random' placement of the T-Shirts ... I'm really excited to start that one.  Thinking outside the box and all that ...


This is the latest T-Shirt quilt, made for Melanie (thanks, Mom!).  Melanie and Mom bought me her gymnastic t-shirts and since she loves purple (woo woo ... another one who isn't afraid of a bit of color!) we did dark purple/light purple sashings, cornerstones, and borders.  Great backing and a lime green binding!


And then the quilting is the Circle Lord Swirls.  I really like this one for T-Shirt quilts because it really holds that quilt together without being really dense.  If the quilting is too loose (less dense) I'm afraid the t-shirts and their stabilizer pieces would separate.


Enjoy!  




Oh, that last picture is the great backing that Melanie chose for her quilt.  Purple background, lime green and blue birds, lavender flowers, red paisleys ... just makes me want to smile!

Oh my! Let's dance!

This video is absolutely fabulous!  I have to thank Pat Sloan for providing the link to this wonderful, colorful, dancing video.  Even if you aren't a 'dancer', you have to really appreciate the colors in this video!  


http://okgo.net/2012/03/29/skyscrapers/


Pay attention to the 1:54 minute mark ... makes me want to go take some tango lessons! I am a dancing bear but this is something else!


Enjoy!  I'm going to also post it on INFO SITE AND YOU-TUBE FAVORITES, somewhere over there on the right.

Crikey! Maybe there ARE Quilt Police ...

I was reading one of my favorite blog sites (Urban Elementz blog) and came across this article:


http://www.urbanelementz.com/blog/2012/04/03/whats-next/


You just might want to check this out.  I admit that I have not researched this in depth ... but we could see this train coming for a long time now, right? 


Lots of info and lots of situations.  Keep your eyes open!


My question is this:  I have a stash that could be its own store.  And I have fabric that I have NO IDEA who  the designer is ... hmmmm ....


Ok, so here's MY plan.  I'm going to keep on piecing and quilting.  When I know the info, I will give full credit.  When I don't know, I can't and won't.  


So back to reading and researching this.  It's always something, isn't it?  

So Like I was Saying ...

It HAS been a while, hasn't it?  So let's get all caught up. 


HAPPY EASTER to you!  I love the licorice jelly beans and I've been good so far this season.  Only one bag has crossed my lips.  Look at my tongue!  Oh, mom, that is sooooo gross!  Can't you just hear them now?


First of all, I've been busy.  Could have guessed that, couldn't you?  


Check out what I 'presented' myself with:  NEW SHOES!  Woo Woo!  I do love a new pair of shoes!  And the neon green is spectacular!  I just love looking down at my pretty shoes!


OK, these are 'magic' shoes, see?  They get me up in the morning, and get me to the Y, and get me on the treadmill, and get my feet moving ... yeah, that's the ticket ... it's the shoes!  Let me tell you, I bless the day that someone came up with the idea of putting a TV in front of me while I'm on the treadmill!  I get so darn bored just walking walking walking ... and no, being outside wouldn't be any better!  So I've had them for 2 weeks and I've been to the Y ... no, that can't be right ... six times??? What the ....???  Maybe if I wear them to bed ...


So I have earplugs in to listen to the TV, my Kindle Fire in front of me in case the TV bores me, and my phone at hand in case someone finds it necessary to talk to me at 6:00 in the morning.  It could happen ... 



So ... quilting items:


Terri handed me her DIL's grandmothers vintage quilt to finish off for her.  I think this is a belated birthday present for her DIL.  Anyway, this is one gorgeous quilt. Look at that zig-zag border.  She said it took 12 yards of binding (not fabric ... just binding) to finish it off.  Anyway, as I worked on it, I started to appreciate just how precise this piecer was in getting all these odd shapes to line up correctly.  This was all HAND-PIECED, by the way.  I know, I know ... it probably should have been finished by hand, but then again ...  so I tried to find a pattern that would just let the quilt do the talking.  A sweet panto fit the bill.  The backing is a cream muslin.  Vintage in its own right ...

And then I offered to teach one of my small quilting groups the Spicy Spiral Table Runner.  These are absolutely awesome!!  Check out our motley crew and their beautiful creations.  And these table runners are just the ticket for SID'ing (if that's your cuppa tea ... not me, baby!  I'll throw mine on the long-arm and get 'er done!) on your domestic machine.  I've seen the work that some of you do using your DSMs and I'm in awe!  There's Pat, Elaine, Jerrie, Ashleigh, Anita, and Rose.  Hi girls!!  They didn't whine too much and I think they had a good time.  I think they were amazed that they actually walked away with a finished table runner ... well, Anita ALMOST got hers finished!!  Well done, ladies!

So now we have MIL visiting and I'm trying to get some different projects done plus a trip to Savannah coming up.  Life is always interesting, isn't it?


So next up will be a T-Shirt quilt, a blue/yellow quilt, a batik ... another blue/yellow, and several more batiks ... and ... and ... I just LOVE this stuff!


Happy Easter!

Bright Batiks for the Birthday Boy!

I'm in the midst of building a T-shirt quilt from scratch (more later) and while waiting for customer to respond to a question about the t-shirts, I threw this on Max and away we went!!  

This is for Pam's grandson who will be 5 soon.  I didn't get a picture of the back (bad bad bad me!) but it is a diagonal multi-colored "rainbow" flannel ... and since Birthday Boy requested a Rainbow Quilt, Grandma Pam came through!  

I love the bright colors on this quilt and Pam's piecing is so good, that again ... made my job easy.  

The name of the pattern is Confetti.  Stunning quilts, but then again, I'm not afraid of COLOR!    

I used the pantograph Fossil on this one.  Love that Urban Elementz!  Thanks, Patricia!

Peacock Fan Stack n Whack version

I spent a couple of days doing this one and Mindy said I could post pictures.  What a joy to quilt this one!  Piecing is perfection and all is square!  Woo woo!!


Again, I used my Intuos4 to help me come up with some creative design ideas.  I love the swirly "peacocks" in the blue fan area - thanks to Deloa Jones and her very creative class.  And the pebbles and fans in the light blue area was helped along by Carla Barrett of Feathered Fibers and the Quilt Whisperer class I took in earlier in the year.  I am so thankful to all those creative minds we have out there.













Remember that you can click on the picture and you should be able to get a close-up view.

 Feathers with pebble center.


And swirly peacocks in the dark blue fan.  Aren't these fans pretty??  


Good job, Mindy!!

Check out the swag and beadboard in the border.  Sweet!!!

Can it really be Christmas already?

I've been singing Christmas carols this week!  LOL!  Don't you just love being your own boss and being able to sing as you waltz with your long-arm machine?  Max and I had a great time quilting Joanne's and her friend's two Christmas quilts!  Those quilts are twins ... and being that I have twin daughters (Hi Em!  Hi Liz!)  this task was really a fun task.  


Joanne told me that she and her friend wouldn't mind if the quilts were quilted the same, but I decided (and don't you love that YOU get to make a few decision?) that these two sweet quilts deserved their own individual quilting.  


So on Quilt #1, which is Joann's, I used the Swinging on a Star pantograph.  BTW, working with Patricia Ritter out of Urban Elementz (www.urbanelementz.com) where I get my pantographs is a real joy.  Thanks, Patricia, for answering all my questions and helping me make good quilting decisions!  Ok, so Swinging on a Star was used on Joanne's quilt ... and on her friend's quilt I used Winter Wonderland #1.  On both quilts I used Magna-Glide thread from www.bobbincentral.com.  That Glide thread is so good.  And on these sparkly quilts the sheen of the Glide thread is over-the-moon!   And both quilts look fabulous!  What a great time I had!


Thanks, Joanne, for letting me play with these two sweet quilts.  Good job piecing, both of you.  Makes my job soooooo much easier when the piecing is so good.


So here they are:

Civil War Reproduction Quilt

This is  Anne's quilt that has kept me busy for a couple of days now.  She spent quite a bit of time piecing this and wanted custom work.  I looked at it and thought, "Oh, my ... this really does scream Custom, doesn't it?"  I had so much fun with this one.  And again, I used my design tool to help lay out the different designs/motifs.  Just a very gratifying quilt all the way around.

It's a dreary rainy day in Georgia so pictures taken inside the house.  Ok, we have sailboats on the desk and Mojito mix on the wine chiller ... hubby on boat and me with a Mojito!  Life is Grand!

I used two layers of batting ... Quilters Dream Blend 70/30 on the bottom and Quilters Dream Wool on top ... and that wool batting just helps the quilting pop, doesn't it?

Hitch your lil' Red Wagon to a star!

Last month I went to a retreat in Florida and came across one of the neatest 'quilting toys' I've ever seen ... a wagon!  


And was I ever happy when I discovered that the wagon was available in RED!  Woo Woo!  My own Little Red Wagon!  


It holds a bunch of quilting stuff and just makes life a little bit easier.  Don't you hate making 3 or 4 trips out to the car to bring in your sewing machine, your project box(es), your cutting mat, your tool case, your seat cushion, your iron, your extension cord(s), your extension table, yada yada yada.  You know what I mean ... you've done it, many times probably.  Well, this little beauty holds it ALL!  And then when you are done, it collapses into a manageable size for storing in the car.  I love this wagon!  


I got mine from Amazon.com - compulsive shopper that I am - but friend Tina found HER little red wagon at her local Sam's Club! Isn't Tina a clever gal and isn't Sam a clever boy for stocking our favorite quilting toys?


So there I go, with my peep-toe-shoes and pulling a little red wagon.  Wheeeeee ....

If I were a frog I'd say "Time's fun when you're having flies ..."

Yes indeedy, time does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it?  And I must have been having a bunch of fun because time sure has flown by.


Daughter Emily (of "I LOVE Mr. Minkee!" fame) visited from Savannah.  First on our list was to visit a new-to-us yarn store, The Whole Nine Yarns (http://www.thewholenineyarns.com) ... and all we can say is "Wow! This is what a yarn store should be!"   And the customer service is top-notch!  Emily is a seasoned knitter and I am a rusty beginner.  I crocheted a long time ago and still feel more comfortable with a single needle but Em has talked me into giving knitting a try.  And we came away with some fabulous yarn so I think I've committed (yeah, where's the straight-jacket?) myself to getting reacquainted with knitting and crocheting.  Like I need another hobby, right?   So click on The Whole Nine Yarns link if you're into the yarn thing.  What a great shop we have here!  


So Em showed me some techniques on using Photoshop on my Wacom Intuos4 ... what a life-saver!  I learned how to copy and paste!  Woo Woo!  


I'm using the Intuos4 to design quilting designs and I absolutely love it.  No more putting a quilt on Max and standing there thinking, "OK, what do I do?"  With the Intuos4 and the Photoshop Essentials program, I can take a picture of the quilt, upload it to my computer and then sit and design.  And pretty soon, voila!  A design comes forward and I can actually see what it might look like.   I really like this approach much better than the ... uh oh, what do I do now? scenario that I once experienced.  Great designing tool.


And then while Em knitted me a cowl scarf, I started a spiral table runner.  Have you seen this?  It is so much fun!  And the hardest part is picking out the fabrics and then learning how to cut them.  But once that is done, it's easy peasy!  Haven't decided how to quilt it yet.  That will come soon.


Here's some pictures to enjoy.

Spiral Table Runner

Sweet Em knitting while we solved all the troubles of the world!