A Concert T-Shirt Quilt

Hi all!

It feels like lately all I do is t-shirt quilts!  Believe me I am not complaining :-D   I love making memory quilts.  There is something so special about them!

This particular quilt is for an avid concert-goer.  She has a LARGE collection of concert shirts.  But, these were the 12 shirts that she could "part" with.  I told her - this way she could enjoy these 12 shirts, and memories, every day instead of one at a time if she happened to wear the shirt that day.

These are some good memories!  Not to mention some great concerts I bet!  Sorry for the shadow across the quilt.  The day was sunny and perfect temperature at the cottage and this is my favourite spot for taking photos.  I can't redo it because the quilt has been delivered!

I quilted the quilt in a simple meander pattern using 40 wt Glide Thread in a light blue top and bobbin.  I used a light blue backing fabric as well in a colour that matches the light blue April Wine t-shirt in the middle.  I also used the same fabric for the binding and I love how it framed the quilt!  I looked at black or navy for the binding but there is so much black and navy in the quilt already it would have "floated the edge instead of providing a frame - does that make sense?

Right after this quilt was taken off the frame I quilted my LEGO Mini Figure t-shirt quilt and got to finishing it up.

I'm almost finished the binding on it; but, for now I will work on this during the daylight hours.  I'll show this quilt soon - after the last stitches are taken.  And, if you can believe it, I have two more t-shirt quilt commissions that have come in that I will get started on this weekend!

Happy Long Weekend everyone!  I hope that you get a few stitches in!!  

A Quilt for a Friend

Hi there!

I hope that you are enjoying the later days of August!  The weather has been humid here but we are enjoying the last days of summer!  My oldest is home again after finishing his college diploma and getting his affairs sorted out :-)

I took some of the summer finishing up this quilt for a friend.  I January I lost a dear quilting friend after her battle with Pancreatic Cancer.  While she was ill she was trying to finish quilts for all her grand-children.  She didn't quite get there.  After her death one of her daughters was sorting through her sewing room and found this horse panel that was clearly purchased for one of here grand-daughters who loaves her horses!

She asked me if I could make it into a finished quilt for her - and - how could I refuse!!!  Of course I would!  I proposed many different setting options for her; but, what she wanted was for the panel to just have borders added and finished.  How could I refuse!?

Luckily my local quilt shop (LQS) where the panel was purchased still had some supporting fabrics.  I took a picture of them and brought her the fabric choices.  I knew that she would pick the black and grey prints since these are the colours that she loves to wear LOL!  I simply added borders to make the quilt large enough to be a throw for her to cuddle under.  

I discussed various quilting options with her; but, what she wanted was for it to be quilted the way that her Grandmother would have quilted it.  That meant hand-quilting it or a meander.  Meander won out!  I used Glide thread Warm Grey and it quilted up beautifully!!

I am in love with this grey barn-board fabric that the owner of my LQS suggested!  It goes perfectly with the theme and colours of the panel!  What a find!

When it came to the binding of the quilt I found myself stalled.  I just couldn't bring myself to tackle the last steps of this quilt.  Overall, this was an emotional quilt for me but the hand sewing was just hard.  Probably because this was one of the ladies that I hand quilt with in my Tuesday night Bee.  Needless to say, I finished it.

I am happy that I could do this favour for my friend, and, of course, her grand-daughter.  I miss her so much; but, it was nice to be able to finish one of her last projects and make the gift to her grand-daughter happen.  Now it's time to give it to it's owner whom I know will cherish it!!

Quilts really are a great big hug from the maker!!

Organizing / Sorting / Processing

Happy August all!!

Ahhh summer!  I have been spending as much time as possible at the cottage this summer since winter was so long, spring was long and it feels like summer just got here!  Oh well - you have to make the most of what you have!

After a long weekend with friends at the cottage, I came home and was looking for some brown ribbon, in one of my drawers, when I pulled out this MESS!!

Uggg!!!  I don't know how I over-looked this for so long!!  Scraps, 2" squares, ribbon, sequins, zippers, elastics and MORE.  My first impulse was to upend this over the garbage bin.  Luckily I posted a picture to Instagram to see what others would do.  Everyone said to process it so I DID!  Wahoo!

First I pressed all the scraps and squares and sorted it.  Found some more in another drawer and repeated the process.  Thank goodness for my AccuQuilt die cutting system!  If I had to go back to rotary cutting 2" squares from scraps I probably would have thrown it all out

And now my 2" square bin is completely full - I'm not really sure that I will ever use this many squares!  I have so many leaders and enders (L&E) quilts to finish somedays I think I might just piece them instead of doing the L&E technique.  Sigh!!

My ribbon, zippers, sequins, elastic and more is sorted into drawers.  I can find what I am looking for now easily; but, I think that I have way too much of all of this!  I may have to donate this, as a lot of you suggested, but, for now, I am happy that it is sorted!

So, that means that I have one set of drawers sorted.  Organizing is such a long process.  Some people love it!  I don't hate it, but, I don't love it.  What about you?