cotton and steel

I decided to go with simple 2.5 inch squares.  I'm feeling a little mediocre about this quilt looking at this picture, but I am already too far invested to change it.  So I'm hopeful it will come together and look good. 

It's hard to go wrong with such simple patchwork...

t-shirt quilt

My kids swim team coach retired after this summer's season, and I was asked to make her a quilt with the t-shirts from all the previous years.  They told me it would count as my volunteer hours, and I jumped at the opportunity.  It was a no brainer...any swimming families out there?  You know all about volunteering at swim meets.   Making a quilt felt like such a treat.  

I had never made a t-shirt quilt before, so I searched around pinterest to get an idea of what needed to be done.  Basically all you have to do is stabilize the knit t-shirts before you sew them all together.  I used the thinnest suggested stabilizer, Pellon #906f.  I cut the collars and sleeves off the t-shirts, then ironed on the stabilizer, then trimmed to the size I wanted.  Mine were 15.5 inches (I think).

Inspiration came from this quilt, (it was even the same colors).  I found this polka dot for the backing at Hobby Lobby.  Matched our team colors perfectly.

Our coach has several phrases she uses all the time, so we used them on a block.  We talked about having them embroidered (but I don't have a machine that embroiders, and the turn around time at a shop was too long), we talked about doing it by hand (but my hand embroidery skills are seriously lacking), I ended up free-motion quilting it on my machine (I stabilized this piece of fabric too).  I didn't trust myself to just free-hand it, so I printed out the phrases and pinned them to the fabric, then I just sewed over them 3 or 4 times.  It worked out really well, a bit of a pain picking off all the paper, but not terrible.  I wish I'd used a darker color.  Black.

 black and white stripes for binding

drawstring bags

Whoa, has it really been 2 months since I have been on here?  It's summer, and we are in our last week of it and I am not really ready for it to be over.  My kids have certainly reached the point when they need to get back into a routine, but I love the lack of structure that we have right now.  I'm not looking forward to the homework and busy afternoons.   Who's with me? the 4pm-8pm (during the school year) are the WORST!

Jeni's Lined Drawstring Bags are the best bags.  My son had a birthday party a couple weeks ago and wanted a piñata.  We were with lots and lots of cousins, so we made bags for all of them.  I didn't mind.  I love making them and pairing different fabrics together.  They are perfect for collecting piñata loot and toting it around with other treasures.

t-shirt quilt

I'm in the throws of a t-shirt quilt for my kids swim team coach, and I'm stuck on the quilting.  I'll probably end up doing a stipple, but would love some suggestions.  The black sashing is throwing me.

I hope I don't hurt any feelings, but I am not a fan of t-shirt quilts.  I do think it will be a nice quilt, with memories, but I would've loved to make a nice quilt and left the t-shirts out.

chewbacca

One more for the Star Wars quilt.  

Chewbacca

I'm beginning to wish I had made these smaller, they are kind of big.  I'm not sure if it's not a big deal, or if I should rethink the whole thing.  

I do love them though.

a plus quilt finished!

This is the first time I have made a plus quilt, and I am really liking this pattern.  It's so simple (just squares), but I love that it creates a design too.  

I just now realized that this is actually another pixelated quilt, to go along with the other two I'm working on.

When we moved back to Texas a year and a half ago, I was naturally very worried about my school age daughter.  I worried more about her than anything else.  

As it usually goes, her adjustment to new school and new friends was a breeze.  I owe most of that to her teacher last year, we really lucked out.  That same teacher just had a baby, so this quilt is for her baby.  I love her so much.  She helped my daughter to blossom and brought out the best in her. 

I quilted it on either side of the seams, and I love the texture it has, so soft.

 Bound in blue and white stripes (this might be my very favorite binding ever, it's just so clean and crisp).  Binding is from Sarah Jane's Out to Sea line for Michael Miller 

copycat quilt

years and years ago (seems like another lifetime ago), I made a quilt almost exactly like this one.  It just kinda came together unexpectedly, and I really liked it.  I ended up selling it in my etsy shop, and over the past 6 years, it is one of the quilts I get asked to duplicate the most often.  

So, I finally made a copy, it's not exactly the same, but definitely similar.  It's not made with Dick and Jane fabric, but similar fabric I bought when I was brand new to fabric stashing.  

I made this quilt top a while ago--I felt like I just wanted to use up fabric.  Then the top sat and sat and sat until I finally finished it this weekend.

 Black and white stripes were begging to go on this quilt, and I think it makes the quilt.  It finishes it off so perfectly.

 It also works perfectly with the backing (an old Denyse Schmidt from Jo-Anns)

 This one is listed in my shop.