Saturday, June 13, 2015

Memory T-shirt Quilt



I had said I wouldn't do another t-shirt quilt unless it was a memory quilt and here I am doing a memory quilt for my cousin's granddaughter but I have to say that I am glad that I agreed to do it.  The colors of her tees have just come together so nicely.  I really am liking the blocks so far.   I had intended to try to make some dimensional blocks but I have changed my mind but may still do something in the sashing.













Sunday, June 7, 2015

And Sew it Begins



I have two quilts started at the moment.  I think I am going to try a couple of new techniques on both.  One is a t-shirt memory quilt for my cousin's daughter.  On this one because I don't want to cut any part of her memories away I will be doing my first quilt where none of my blocks are quite the same size.  I am confident that I can do it but I am having to put a little more brain power into it than i am used to.  I may also add some  filler blocks and I have some really cute textured blocks that I am leaning toward. If it looks like what I am picturing in my mind i will share them on another post.



The other is what I am going to call a quilt of encouragement for my grand daughter going off to school.  It includes pictures of her and her family and words of encouraging.  This was a new technique as well, printing to fabric using bubble jet and may well be one that I never use again.  I am thinking that I may have ruined my printer doing these.   Oh well you live you learn.  Also something new on this one is the way that I am piecing her blocks in a crazy stained glass kind of way.  Again I will post more pictures when completed.  Have a wonderful day!!!










Friday, May 29, 2015

My Survivor and 1st T-Shirt Quilt

I am 2 years out of my chemo treatment now and my tests continue
to be good.  I am so grateful for all the prayers that have been sent up
on my behalf and I am thankful that God has given me the time here on 
earth to be with my family.  And grateful that he has used this to teach me.

He has taught me that I should put more trust in him.  And I need to trust
more in his word.

Matthew 6:26-34New King James Version (NKJV)

26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

So I just wanted to share this.

Christmas before last I went through my closet and cleaned out all of my t-shirts and decided to do my first t-shirt quilt.  A couple of them were gathered from CARTI and from relay for life that my sister-n-law was involved with in our area.  
 I had the purple and neon green material that I had bought some time ago just
because the colors popped and I just loved the green and purple together.  I used
a decorative stitch with purple thread.  And
when I went to putting it all together I think the colors just went so well with the tees that I had for my quilt and I just love how it turned out.
 So this is my survivor quilt and I have been sleeping
under it for several months now.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Finish, Attempts at New Techniques and My First Label

Update:  I just realized there is a credit that I failed to include.  And that was my inspiration for my free motion quilting which came from http://leahday.com/.  I have only done stippling but one day hope to branch out and try some more.

I have finally finished my sister's angel heart quilt.  I have
tried a couple of new techniques and put my first label
ever on this quilt.

These are just some close ups of some of the details on the blocks.


This one shows one of the new details that I tried on this quilt.
You can find a tutorial here at Podunk Pretties for this scalloped border.




And here is a tutorial for this piped binding at Aunt Marti's 52 Quilts
I really like how it turned out and I think the corners mitered better than I have ever been able to
get them to in the past even if they are not just perfect.  The miter on the denim was from the tutorial mentioned above for the scalloped tutorial.











And lastly is the first label I have ever made.  I must admit that I did lots of searching on the internet
for tutorials on this element.  But probably used Dolls and Daydreams for the best part of my inspiration.  I wound up with a product called Blumenthal Craft, Crafter's Images Computer Crafting at Home.  It is a 100% Cotton Poplin but I think at some point I am going to try the freezer paper with a white cotton poplin or similar fabric.  I wasn't absolutely pleased with my label and so I want to play around with that more.  The directions on the product said that it works with all Inkjet Printers but I was really concerned about the ink not setting so I ironed it with a very hot iron to try to set the ink first and then poured vinegar into a shallow dish and wet the entire label and rinsed before taking it back and drying it with the very hot iron.  The label was just a little larger than I liked and when
I did my binding you can see where I sewed across the corners.  I don't so much mind that the thread from the binding was on that side but I don't like that it went across my label.  So I think I need to work with making a design that will set away from my binding far enough that my sewing line won't go directly across the corner of my label. 



All in all I am still pleased with the way it turned out.  I so love the red against that denim.
It just sets against the blue denim so pretty.


Sunday, March 8, 2015

Start of Another Angel Quilt for my Sister



I think this is about how I have decided to do the layout for my sister's quilt.  Not sure about this so suggestions would be welcome.  Also I'm thinking about doing a small heart with yoyo's right in the middle of the next to the last row because I think it might make the hearts in the middle look a bit like a heart.



I just was not satisfied with this layout because it looked a lot like a big "H".

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Duh...Just Realized I haven't Posted about the Latest

I have been trying to blog here about my quilts as I do them 
but I still get lax on coming here.  I am working now on a quilt for my sister.
It is going to be full of hearts and love.

When I am working on them I test different ideas.  This is one of the
first log cabin hearts I did the other day and I think it was just an epic fail.
The "v" in the top is just too shallow.


But I think the second try was better.  Although I must say that when
 I am putting these together and before they have been trimmed up 
I am always thinking these are the ugliest blocks.


But once I have them quilted and get them trimmed up I am starting to
think they are so much prettier.  There is just something about getting 
that unfinished batting edge trimmed away that starts giving them
that neat quilt block look.  Plus for these I just love how the red
compliments the blue denim.

Below are previews of the other heart blocks I've made to go in it.  
They will be be interspersed with some of the pocket blocks that I have. 


Button!  Buttons!


Log Cabin Hearts!


Angels holding hearts!


Heart! Hearts!


Broken Hearts!


Denim Hearts!


Linked Hearts! 


Machine Embroidered Hearts!