2022 Christmas T-Shirt Quilt Gift

As promised - here is the T-Shirt Quilt Christmas Gift from 2022!

I did share this on my Facebook page but not on my blog, (whoops sorry!) so here it is.

This quilt was inspired by my Guilty Pleasures t-shirt quilt that I made for myself, and the Star Wars t-shirt quilt, but this one is for my oldest.  

His contains shows he/we loved, Comiccon shirts, Taekwondo memories, Robotics, music and more.  

I quilted this in 40wt Glide thread in an all-over sort of waves and Supernatural Logo inspired wavy star that he just loved when he saw it.  I didn't take a picture of the back of this one - sorry!

Next t-shirt quilt?  I have a stash of Halloween shirts, Zumba tanks, Angry Bird, video games and Minecraft still to do.  

Hmmm . . . which one should I look at next?

Space T-Shirt Quilt

 Happy New Year!

I hope that you had a peaceful evening and I wish you a joyous new year full of more of what lights you up and brings you ease.

I thought that I would start the year off by sharing my last finish of 2023.  This is a space themed T-Shirt quilt, for my youngest son, as a Christmas gift.  Last year I finished the one for my oldest for Christmas so this year was his turn. (I just realized that I never did share this quilt from last year so I'll do that in another post!!).

We gathered these for a few years as only a couple of these shirts were his and in good enough condition to add into a quilt!  In gathering these shirts I realized that kids tend to hold onto their space shirts!  After I was done sorting the ones that he wanted to add into the quilt, he didn't want any of the skateboarding space t-shirts in the quilt, snuck in but it isn't very overtly skateboarder, I put the remaining shirts on a local Buy Nothing group, and they were snapped up in seconds - which made me happy.

I got this quilt together pretty quickly.  I find T-Shirt quilts fun now that I have my preferred technique down.  In a nutshell - vertical rows, instead of horizontal, separated into widths that work in that vertical row.  I always leave length on the bottom of the shirts so that I can square up the bottom later.  I choose to do this as stress-free and easy as I can and it works for me mentally and physically.

I choose to not do abundant math before I start to cut.  Yes, you absolutely can do abundant math and figure out a detailed puzzle quilt and they are beautiful, and I've done them, this is just what I prefer now ;-)

I quilted this in 40wt Glide Navy thread in an all-over waves, super-nova stars and big pebbles and I love how, to me, it evokes a sort of Milky Way feel.  I use a Spoon Foot on my long arm to glide over those bulky seams and I always press my t-shirt quilt seams open if I can.

Check out that texture on the back!  I do love an all-over pattern for t-shirt quilts rather than custom - again just my preference.  I actually used this wide-back fabric on the borders and for the binding.  I always prewash my fabric; so, this fabric was pre-shrunk, and I always tear my wide-backs so they come out nice and square and easy to load onto the frame.

In the borders I did use a specialty ruler to do half moons in the first border and then a simple piano key in the outer border.  This is an old Gadget Girls ruler that I got on clearance and I really loved using it.  It won't be the last time.

Next I'll share my oldest's T-Shirt quilt that I did last Christmas.  

So, my friend, what do you think??

A Runner's Bib Quilt

Happy New Year's Eve!

I hope that you've had an amazing Holiday season full of light and peace.

And, I hope that you have a joyous and safe New Year's Eve.  We're going to be chill here.  No big plans and we might not make it to midnight.

Our Christmas was really chill as well.  At the beginning of the month I had surgery for thyroid cancer and I've spent the last month recovering and healing.  Don't worry, we caught it early.  I got a referral to an excellent ENT from my doctor who found a small node.  After an ultrasound and a biopsy, it was discovered that it was thyroid cancer.  I had surgery to remove half my thyroid and everything looks good!  

Take care of yourself my friend.  Get the tests done, stay current with your appointments and advocate for yourself.  Early detection really is key.

You're worth it.

In other news LOL!

Check out this cool runner's bib quilt I made for a client!

The bibs are all made of a sort of plastic material.

I trimmed them down since they had holes in the corners, where the pins went, and then added sashing around them.  I love this effect!  The bibs are framed in a simple black fabric that really shows off the lettering.

The new owner LOVES this quilt!  Check out how and where it's being showcased.

I couldn't be happier with how it was received.

The new owner gets to see all of his bibs, while he trains inside, and he gets a beautiful reminder and acknowledgement of his achievements.

Reflections for a next time?

* Next time I would probably do this more like a Snow Ball and add triangles onto the corners to cover the holes rather than trimming them down.  This way some of the words would still be whole instead of trimmed off quite as much.  Then add the sashing to the sides etc.

* Or, I would do a photo transfer, of each bib, onto fabric, and leave the bibs as is.  This would make for a much more cozy quilt but it would up the cost a lot if I was printing this at home both in ink and photo transfer sheets.

I really love this quilt!  I love the fireworks fabric that is between the rows, and also on the back, and I love that he gets these out of a box and onto a wall to be able to enjoy them rather than store them.  I love that this was a birthday and Christmas gift.  Quilts really are the best gift ever ;-)

What do you think?

A Rag Quilt Gift and a Rag Rectangle Trick

 

Hello my friend!

Here in Ontario we had a huge dump of snow - huge, big cotton ball flakes that turned into baking snow kind of dump.  We were out at the cottage yesterday and drove back in the very start of the snow so it was nice to be tucked into our warm house to watch instead of being on the road.  In my gratitude journal that day I wrote - so grateful for our warm house amidst the snow.  Where ever you are - I wish you a cozy, warm day too.

While at the cottage I remembered I had rag quilt squares all ready to go in a bin.  Well, imagine my surprise when I opened the bin and found that they were quilted already - I thought they were just sandwiched!  This was an awesome surprise!

That night I laid out what I had in the bin and sewed it all together.  Here it is AFTER I washed it.

We took this picture right before we got on the road and BEFORE it was washed.  I think it still looks great even before it was washed the fringe really fluffs up afterwards.

What I really like about this one is that I use the rectangular die and the square die in a scrappy sort of way so there's not a lot of seams to match up - win!  It certainly makes things easier.  This quilt is going to be a Christmas gift for a friend and I hope that she loves it!

Although the rag rectangle die for the Go cutter has been discontinued, I came up with a way for you to be able to cut rag rectangles using your regular go die back in 2014, and I wrote a short tutorial on it.  This is such a great way to use those strips of flannel that are often leftover from cutting rag squares.

I've made too many rag quilts to count over the years but here are a few of my favourites:

Red and Green Sashed Rag Quilt

Blue Snowman Rag Quilt

Cog and Gear Rag Quilt

Minecraft Creeper Rag Quilt

Minecraft Skeleton Rag Quilt

I always cut my rag quilts using my AccuQuilt Studio dies - it's my favourite way to make a rag quilt because there is NO snipping!!  No hand cramps.  Sure, they need a a little more care when they're being sewn together, but, I can tell you, I never want to make a rag quilt the other way again.  I've made so many quilts using the rag dies and even have made a video (12 years ago!) about the Go! rag die.

I look like a baby in this video!  But this shows you how long I've been using the dies to cut rag quilts.  People often ask me if the dies wear out and I have to always say - no, but the mats do.  You'll know when it's time to change your mat but just keep repositioning and flipping.

Tell me - do you love the rag dies?  Or, do you prefer to snip, snip, snip?

Christmas Quilts

Christmas Quilts.  

Are you like me?  Do you absolutely adore the combination or red and green with gold?  Or, not your cup of tea?  I don't know why but I've always adored Christmas prints and the colour combination.  That's probably why my collection of Christmas quilts is now coming in at over a dozen!

Last year I offered an evening of yoga, sound, and my Christmas quilts, and, it was so popular and well received that we're doing it again this year.  I absolutely loved seeing everyone snuggling under my Christmas quilts - it was amazing to see my love of quilting coming into the yoga room.  Last year I finished a few more Christmas quilts and this year I added a couple more scrap quilts into my collection.  I started these when I was recovering from Covid and now they are done!

First up is the Christmas Take 5 quilt.  I adore this pattern so much!  It showcases large prints beautifully and somehow this ends up looking like presents.

I use the Accuquilt Studio die for this one and highly recommend it if you enjoy this pattern.  It makes sewing this together an absolute breeze and so easy to use up scraps from other projects.

Here's a close up of the Holly Leaf Meander (as I call it).  I think this always looks so good and it really isn't hard to do at all.  I made a video of how I do it - the video isn't perfect but I hope that it shows you the technique.  If you like the video I hope that you'll click the like button and subscribe to my channel.  This is sped up about 3 x's - man I wish I could quilt this fast!

I love the red wide-back I used on this one.  I used Glide cherry thread on the top and a pre-wound red bobbin.  This red wide-back became the centre pieces for the next quilt.

Next up is a wonky Log Cabin Quilt!  I am in LOVE with this quilt!

Seriously, I think this is the most fun piecing that I've had in a while.  I was able to use up little bits and pieces and it honestly did not matter what size the strips were, or, even if they were straight.  I just sewed and it was wonderful. ALL of this came from my stash including the red snowflake border (that was purchased to make masks) that was enough for borders and binding. 

Like I mentioned, the red centres are from the wide-back and they are all various sizes.  I tear my wide-backs, so they're straight of grain and way easier to load, so I had sort of an odd size strip to work with and just went with that for the centres.  I think the different sizes adds to the interest in this quilt.

This used up so many scraps!  So many little bits that I was saving - you know those bits that are just too small to be usable but way too big to throw out?  Well, here they are!  I used my 10.5" square die to square this up but I have to say, next time, I would square these up to 6.5" (finishing at 6") so that I wouldn't have to find such large scraps for the outside.

Now check out the back - I am thrilled about this backing.

Many years ago I used to work for a quilt store.  The owner loved country fabrics, primitives and homespuns.  Not really my thing but hey I still purchased fabric there!  Well, these homespuns have been sitting in my stash for over 15 years!  I have no idea why I had these - I think they might have been for a rag jacket (red would be the sleeves and binding I think) that I never got around to making.

I pulled them out and started to piece them together, in a way that made sense to me, and added the yellow and gold flannels in to make it larger.  This was perfect for Covid recovery because it was easy and there was no right way to do it - kind of like the from of this quilt!

Voila!

A red, green, and gold backing for my scrap quilt - all from my stash, using fabrics that I wasn't crazy about, but, I love for a backing.

So what do you think of my new Christmas quilts?

 

Christmas Projects!

Hell my friend,

Well Covid has finally eased off.  I just have a stuffed up nose and a bit of a hoarse voice left-over and that's about it!  Thank goodness!  And thank goodness for sewing easy projects in colours that make me happy.  What would we ever do without our sewing machines?

I got the Take 5 quilt together and I have to say - I love it!  Take 5 is a perfect pattern to use up beautiful prints like these and it goes together so quickly.  Every time I make one of these I'm constantly surprised at how much I like it.  I made a Christmas Take 5 several years ago to donate to a fundraiser and I always planned on making another one - well, here she is!

I also found a deep red wide-back in my stash, you can see it on the right side of the picture, that will be perfect for this quilt.

Next up, in my quest to deal with the mountain of Christmas fabrics in my stash, is this wonky log cabin.  This has to be one of the most freeing projects I have ever worked on!  Seriously, this is just a throw it together and it will work out later sort of projects that I don't usually do.  And man is this using up some bits.  I always tear my wide-backs, because they get cut so wonky off the bolt, not anyone's fault, but they load so so much better if they are torn before they are loaded.  Anyways, I used the torn left-over red to cut some squares and rectangles for the centre pieces of the log cabins and then just went for it with piecing strips and bits.  A great way to use up the odd shaped piece of tear-off fabric.

I squared these up using my Studio 10.5" square die but you could use the one for the Go Big too.  This is pretty big for this style of quilt, and you could make these smaller, say 6.5", but I like the bigger size.

After pulling out my Christmas 2" squares bin I realized that I could use a few of these as well for the initial pieces - win!  Why, oh why does this bin never seem to get smaller no matter how much I pull out of it?  Well, to be fair, I added a LOT of squares to it after I processed the scraps from mask making.  Sigh - someday this will be depleted - right?

Probably not, but a girl can dream right LOL!

See what I mean?  This is filled to the brim!

I've also been playing a lot with my sourdough bread.  This is a really easy recipe that is 100% whole wheat.  It doesn't spring up as much as a 100% white recipe but it's delicious and just beautiful with soup.  If you make sourdough bread - give this one a try.

My husband liked this loaf so much that he would only cut the right side of it and hasn't touched the left yet LOL!

Next up, I just bought some tea towels to do a tutorial for the oven handle cloths I made for a friend.  Stay tuned for that and happy quilting!

 

It Finally Caught Up With Me

Well Covid finally caught up with me.  After all this time I finally got it and it packed a punch.  I'm on day seven and finally starting to feel like myself which is such a relief.  Thank goodness for quilting!    Once I got some strength back I was able to get a few things done.  

In my efforts to deplete my Christmas fabric stash I decided to cut out a new Christmas quilt!  I love Christmas fabrics so much so I usually like to showcase them with larger pieces if I can.  Take 5 is a perfect, easy pattern to showcase nice prints and I have the die for my Studio cutter.  So it was easy to cut enough for 42 blocks (6x7 set - maybe I will cut a few more, I haven't decided yet).  

Last night, I pieced all of the blocks - these are so fast, and this morning I laid them out and guess who found them and claimed them LOL!?  River does love fabric - she's my girl.

What do you think?  My husband thinks they look like presents all lined up, and I like that.  I think it will look good on a bed.

Next up a friend asked me to make these towel toppers for her as her sewing machine was acting up.  This was a great, easy project and I think I might make a few of my own.

 

If I make a few more - would you like a tutorial?