A Memorial T-Shirt Quilt

My daughter's friend Corina wanted a quilt made from her grandpa's shirts. When Corina dropped off the shirts, there were so many that I had to make two. The first one was made from dress shirts and was delivered in time to give as a gift before Thanksgiving. Right after Christmas I started on the second quilt from t-shirts and other knit shirts. There were even a few flannel shirts thrown in. 

Once it was finished, I looked at the stack of remaining fabric scraps and figured out how to make a pillow from one of the shirts. I used a 16" pillow form as a measurement to make the pillow cover. The buttons on the front became the opening to get the pillow form in. 

Leftover pieces from the dress shirts made a nice patchwork pillow cover, the cuffs were incorporated into the patchwork as well. I quilted the patchwork with some straight-line stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. 

Back in fall, Corina's daughter asked me if I could make her a baby doll quilt. I started it back in fall and sadly it never got finished. Then last week while cleaning up the sewing room, I came across it and finished it. I was happy to be able to complete it for her. 

I dropped everything off yesterday. Corina was happy with the extra surprises and glad to be able to gift the quilt and pillow to her grandma. 

My Daughter's Quilt Blocks

This week I finished up the quilts I started with my daughter Bailee's leftover quilt blocks. Even after making these, there were still a few blocks left.

I thought about using them on the back but I ended up using minky so that just wouldn't work. Bailee took the pieces I didn't use home with her. I think she was inspired to make a bag with them to use them all up.

My granddaughter will enjoy snuggling up with the little minky quilt.

What's on the design board?

Happy new year! I look forward to new beginnings and starting fresh. I hope it's a healthy year more than anything.

I think I am having a little post-Christmas sadness. The holiday came and went so quickly and I feel like I haven't taken much time to enjoy it. Maybe it's the shortened season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it could also be my new job and taking on an extra volunteer project. I think it will be a while before I take my tree down so I can make an extra effort to sit back and enjoy it.

In an effort to start fresh, I really want to move some old projects out of my sewing room. One of them includes cute blocks that my daughter made a long time ago. They were for a quilt project she made for my granddaughter when she was a baby. And now that baby is 9 so yes, they are really old leftover blocks. I took them and trimmed them down to sew them together. I will most likely make a baby doll quilt for the 9 year old's little sister.

My design board contains those old blocks. I'm going to find some fabric to make sashing and a border to make it a little bigger. I'm sure I can dig up a batting scrap too. How nice to get this one out of the sewing room!

Tumbler Block Doll Quilt

Tumbler Block Quilt

I have Lori Holt's Thimble Ruler Set. There are 2 rulers in the set; one is a 10" ruler and the other is 5". I started to use the 5" ruler with the idea that I would make a quilt.  I seriously thought I could do that.  Then I started to cut the blocks. They were very small. So I stopped.

For a very long time I stared at the stack of cut blocks.  I cut them from one of my favorite fabric lines and looked at them for months.  I finally decided to sew them together and after stringing 9 of them in a row  I was exhausted.  I made a total of 8 rows of 9 little blocks.

After stitching them together, I had the cutest little piece of fabric.  Earlier in the year, I made my granddaughter a doll quilt and after looking at this, I decided it would make a fabulous doll quilt for the other granddaughter.  After all, I couldn't possibly make something for one of the girls without doing the same for the other one.

I added an one-and-a-half-inch inside border out of ecru and a two-and-a-quarter-inch outer border from the fabric line as well.  I had some leftover backing from a larger quilt I made using the 10" thimble ruler so I used that on the back of this mini-version.  I also did some straight-line quilting on the diagonal for a nice contrast.

I think my granddaughter will love it. And on another note, I have grown tired of this fabric line.  I purchased a fat-quarter pack that contained 35 pieces of the line and I also bought 5 yards of my favorites from this line.  It's time to put the rest away for a very long time and move on to other pretty fabrics.

Works in Progress

Sometimes I feel like I don't get much accomplished. Today while looking at my design board, I can see why. I have so many works in progress, that it's a bit overwhelming.  But there really is a method to the madness. 

If there is fabric out, I like to keep cutting fabric.  If the sewing machine is on, I like to keep sewing blocks.  If the batting is out, I like to cut enough for more than one quilt top. So everything will get done. Just not today.

To top it off, all of a sudden I have a hankering to make some tote bags.  So I might just leave these projects go for a little while.  I do have a goal of finishing the charm square baby quilt in the middle, it's for Quilts for Kids and I want to take the finished quilt to next month's meeting.  Which means I do have time to deviate and make some bags!

Mini Log Cabin Blocks

I joined the SewCanShe.com 'It's a New Year Sewalong' and this year's block is the mini log cabin. I made mine from some leftover Sweetwater Noteworthy fabric I had laying around.  These blocks use 1-inch strips so it is easy to find pieces of scraps to use to make the blocks.  Once I made a bunch in a variety of colors I decided to make it into a mini-quilt for my granddaughter's baby doll.  She is one an a half and seems to be in this nurturing phase where all she wants to do is wrap the baby doll in something warm. So now she will have her own little quilt to wrap her doll in.