Traveling Stash!!

Last week I received an awesome email, I won the traveling stash!! Are you not familiar with the traveling stash? It is a box filled to the brim with all sorts of fabric goodies and you pick from it and then add items from your stash to it and send it on to the next person! There is a paper in there with everywhere this package has been and the dates they have had it. This box has gone all over the place and it has been going around for almost 2 years!

I was so excited when the box came - and then my daughter was even more excited when I told her what it was and that she could pick on piece of fabric from the box! She could not wait to open it!

When I opened it I found all of this goodness!! Let me tell you it was so fun going through all of this stuff!

I picked out a few things that I thought I would use, here is what I picked out. Then after the fact I added the 100 blocks book to my pile. ;) My daughter picked the blue fabric in the background!

Then me and my daughter neatly packed the box back up and added these items from my stash! She thought it would be fun to include a flower clip in the box because maybe the next person would have a daughter who would like one! I thought that was sweet of her!

Do you want a chance to win this awesome box filled to the brim with all sorts of fabric goodies? All you have to do is leave me a comment here and I will pick a winner on Saturday Nov 9th! (Only US entries on this please, sorry about this).

And I would love it if you would follow me on facebook, instagram, flickr or my blog! Just click on the buttons in the top right!

In other news I am working on another quilt pattern. I almost have the quilt done, so now I just have to transfer my notes into pattern form!

Retirement Quilt

I know that you are all probably sick of seeing all these t-shirt quilts, but I have just one more for you today.

This lady's husband is retiring after over 25 years of service in the Air Force! That is something right there, and she is something else just for being his wife, and supporting him through every deployment and assignment!

This quilt is made from all of the shirts he has collected from different assignments all over the world. 

We then backed it with awesome Air Force fabric.

 

She was really excited about this, and was trying to keep it a secret from her hubby. Also, when she came to pick it up she brought me a quilt top to quilt for her, which I will share with you later this week.

And another T-shirt Quilt

Here is just one more t-shirt quilt I have made recently. For this one the lady just wanted the t-shirts in a collage for the front. That is a little bit harder - it is like figuring out a puzzle without a picture. But I was able to make it work, and this is what we ended up with.

For the back she just wanted some flannel - with no batting in the middle.

This will definitely be a nice cozy quilt to snuggle under while watching a movie!

Another T-shirt Quilt

I seem to be known as the sewing lady around here. Whenever anyone needs anything fixed or sewn they come to me. Right now these T-shirt memory quilts seem to be really big. I made a ton of them before I left Colorado.

This one was a simple one. She was just going to use it as a throw on the couch, and so the size was not that big of deal. I tried to cut all the shirts 12 x 12 inch square, but some of those fitted female shirts are a little smaller. But she had some bigger logo ones that made up for it.

I know I am not the best photographer or my projects, but everytime I tried to take a picture of this quilt my kids wanted to lay on it. I have around a dozen of pictures with my kids on this quilt. Here is Thing #5, in all his glory. I just loved it so much I had to share!

Have a great day!

Sorority Memory Quilt

My computer has been playing this fun trick on me of turning on and off by itself.

It is great. I usually get about 30 minutes tops before it turns off. So I am sorry if this post seems a little rushed, I am not sure when I will be able to get back on my computer.

Because of this new problem, I have been trying to get my pictures moved to the hard drive. I try to stay on top of this, but I am sure you all know how it goes. In doing this I found pictures of this quilt. This was one of the first t-shirt quilts that I made. I posted about how I started it way back in Jan, and realized that I never posted the finished product! Remember this quilt?

It was huge! She had around 50 shirts for me to use!When it was done she asked if I could sew some more of her husbands shirts on the back. I was able to make it work and stitch around them so that you could not tell from the front that I had sewn more on the back.

But she loved it and loved how it brought back so many fun memories. Most of her shirts were from college and the sorority and fraternity she and her husband joined.

I used a simple Kona black for the back and then this goldish yellow for the binding. I was glad that I could meet her moving deadline and that she liked it. I have learned a lot about t-shirt quilts since this one! 

Hope that you are all having a great weekend! It is rainy here, perfect for doing a little sewing!

I'll be linking up to the parties listed in my link party tab! Check them out, so many great ideas! And to Live Laugh Love.

Graduation Memory Quilt

 I have not been on here in forever, but I am alive! I have moved to North Dakota from Colorado and it is taking some getting used to. Being in the middle of no where and having the closest Wal-Mart 90 miles away I really have been trying to get organized in my shopping and pretty much everything else as well. But I also have been enjoying the summer and spending days at the pool, vacationing with my family and just relaxing!

This quilt is something I made before we left Colorado, but I told the lady I would not post about it until she had given it as a gift to her niece. I made this for a graduation/college send off quilt. I was collecting shirt from her for a couple of months, as she slowly gathered them from her niece. But she has given it to her and so I am posting about it now!

In addition to t-shirts she also had a pair of tennis ball pants that she wanted me to use in the quilt. It worked perfectly because sometimes you need just a little bit of filler due to the size of certain shirts. Then I took this Orlando logo from the front of one of the shirts and put on the corner.

They liked the idea of a border to bring it all together and to make it long enough for a dorm room bed. It turned out beautiful and the gal just loved it and was so excited to take it to college and have all the memories with her!

I am going to try to post on here a little bit more often then once every couple of months. I have a few quilts that I have done already and will try to get them up. For those of you who are still reading my blog even with my absence THANK YOU!!

Sister Photo Memory Quilts

 These two t-shirt quilts are great. The lady I made them for was by far the most organized person I have worked with. She had all the clothes she wanted to use, and she had pictures of her daughters printed onto fabric for me to sew on. It was awesome!

Because of how organized she was, or maybe because I am getting close to my moving date, I really worked hard to get these quilts done for her. This purple one was easy. She did not have a lot of clothes for her oldest daughter - who is 17 - she we filled in with purple fabric. On those purple squares I sewed the fabric photos on. It was fast and cute. I sewed them on with a simple zig-zag stitch.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the back because I pieced two baby blankets and then did a purple border. Anyway, just imagine a super cute back! 

Her other daughter - who is 5 - she had a lot of clothes for. Because of this and because of the different sizes of logos and print we did less of a squares sewn together quilt and more of a puzzle one. At least it was a puzzle for me to try and figure out how to place everything so that it fit. It worked pretty well, except we are not quite square. But she was okay with that thank goodness!

She had two sheets that her daughter used and I used those for the pictures on this quilt - and for the fill in where I did not have clothes that would fit a certain spot. I sewed these pictures on with pink thread because it was sort of a theme here and I had some that matched perfectly! I also used one of the sheets for a border. I personally like a border because I feel like it pulls it all together.

I just love this picture here. If you cannot see it, the little girl is kissing her mom's pregnant belly. I sewed this one onto the outfit that she is wearing in the picture. It is just precious.

These two quilts were fun because of the huge gap in the age of the girls. It was great to see clothes from recent and then clothes from a while ago. The different trends and colors we put kids in now verses then is pretty drastic! 

I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend! I will be cleaning out more for the move!

Baby Clothes Quilt

Even though I have not been on here as much, I have still been sewing like crazy. I have finished almost 9 t-shirt quilts and I am going to start posting them on here for you. 

I also decided that with the next one I make I will make up a tutorial for you so that if you want to make one you can, because they are not as hard as you might think - but they are time consuming, just remember that!

This quilt here was a little bit different from some of the other t-shirt quilts that I have made. This lady asked me if I could make a quilt out of her son's baby clothes. I figured that it could really not be that much harder then any other one so I said yes.

And not it was not much harder, but it took twice as long - because baby clothes are just not as easy to cut because they are smaller - not as much room for error either!

I ended up using almost 150 items of clothing for this quilt. I am always a little bit worried about what my customer will think of the quilt when I get it finished, but she posted on facebook that it was exactly what she had imagined!

 So far I just do a simple zig zag stitch between all of the shirts, but I think I might try something different. If it works well I will share exactly how to do it! (That is not a fold on the back it is the seam, but this picture does not really make it look that way!)

And can you believe that it is May already?! I have a feeling that my move is going to sneak up on me quicker then I want it to!

Wedding Dress Quilt

I know I have been gone for a while. But I have been busy. Conan was out of town for work for 6 weeks and I've done the whole 'single parent' thing before, but I was super busy this go around! And to top it all off we are going to be moving in just over a month! Now I really have my hands full!

But I wanted to share with you something that I finished a little while ago. I had this friend contact me about making her wedding and bridesmaid dresses into a quilt. She really just wanted them made into something she could cherish.

Of course I told her I would, but I did not think it would be so hard for me to cut into that dress. I had it for a full two weeks just sitting there.

She wanted me to cut up her wedding dress!

Well I did some planning and drew up a pattern, and then I did it - I cut into her wedding dress!

When I had the top all done I posted this picture to facebook to show her that I actually was making some progress.

She loved it. She said she teared up just looking at it. And that made my day. I really wanted her to love it.

I finished it all up and tied it up pretty for her. And she loved it even more!

I have been making a few t-shirt quilts that I will post later - that is if I do not get sidetracked by life and the moving thing!

T-shirt quilt

I have been sewing like a mad woman lately. A gal I know wanted a t-shirt quilt from her college days and other shirts that she has collected. Of course I told her I can do this.  I have the top all done as pictures here:

The only thing is she is moving in 2 weeks. I know that I can get it done, but having such a definite deadline I am not used to!

But all I have left to do is quilt it together - probably the most time consuming part, but I think I can get it done!

T-Shirt quilt

I would have to say that the latest craze around me are these t-shirt quilts. I just finished this one out of their favorite clothes from the baby's first year. And I have three more people who are wanting me to make one for them.

It was a little bit tricky because there are so many different sizes that I had to work with. But it was kind of fun trying to see if I could figure out the puzzle.

I like the way this turned out. I did a simple line quilting because knit is not very easy to quilt on!

I am thinking that this might be fun to make with a few of the shirts that my kids have gathered through the years. You know the ones I am talking about; those ones that are just too cute to part with or just mean so much to you. But I am last in line, so it is on to the next one - which is actually some bridesmaid dresses! I am a little bit scared to cut into them because they are so beautiful!

No Sew Scarf

Okay, so I have some really awesome friends. The other day I was checking my email and my friend had sent me a link to make these scarves out of old t-shirts. She said that she thought I would like this. Umm, yep I loved it! I made one up yesterday. The link she sent can be found here. I also saw that Jessica from My World Made by Hand, just guest posted about this.

But these are super duper easy and here is my simple tutorial for them.

First off you start with a simple t-shirt. Conan had cleaned out his closet a few months back and had these t-shirts that he did not really care for, yet he had never worn. So I saved them thinking that they would be good for something  - and they were perfect for this project. This t-shirt is size XXL. (And do you see Ramon - from CARS in the corner of the picture? Thing #4 kept trying to sneak him into every picture I took.)

From this I used a paper plate and cut out circles - as many as I could get. I think that I got about 12. I did not cut any that had the design print on them, because I did not want that on my scarf.

From those circles I cut a spiral out of them. I did not get a picture of this, but I hope you get the idea. You cut your spiral about 2 inches in diameter until you get to the center. Here they are laying out flat.

I then took these and stretched them out a little bit to give them the ruffle look. Thing #4 thought this was great fun. After I stretched them out I glued them together with some fabric glue on one end. I glued two stacks of six together. I then took the 2 stacks and glued them together so that they both went different ways - kind of like a big huge bow tie. I really should have got a better picture of this. I am sorry if it is confusing.

I then wrapped a little piece of leftover fabric around the spot where I glued the 2 pieces. And that is pretty much it! Awesome huh?! You place this piece in the picture above in the back so that it is hiding under your hair.

 However, when I put this on, I decided to try wrapping it around my neck once and it was still super long and then it kept me a little bit warmer since the sun has not come out for 2 days here. But now I did not have to worry about that piece showing.

Here is what the end pieces look like. I love this scarf. I think it would be so much fun to make in bright colors to wear this spring! Conan was even impressed that I made this out of one of his old t-shirts.

I also made a new yellow flower to go with this olive green scarf. I had some leftover fabric from the bridesmaid dresses and so I used it and burned the edges, but instead of stacking them together like I usually do I folded them to create the puff flower. I really like the way it turned out.

 

And I found these great clip and pins together - they sure make these flowers a lot nicer to give as gifts, and to use for myself!

This craft cost me nothing, I had everything I needed to make it right here at my house! Isn't that the best! So go through your closet or your significant others and grab a few t-shirts or go and buy one, they are not too much, and you can make one of these for yourself!

Linking up to the parties in my tab at the top.