Softball Player Quilt #2

I made a second quilt for Autumn with all the t-shirts she had collected.

2019 Mother's Day Cards

I collected some cast off fabric from Beth who had been to a quilt guild auction and bought some lots.  One of the fabrics is pretty, polyester blouse fabric.  It would also make a great scarf.  I used some of it to make 3D flowers.  These were used on Mother's Day/May Day Cards.

Softball Player Quilt #1

This year a friend’s daughter, Autumn, is graduating from high school.  I have been asked to make a t-shirt quilt.  Autumn is a serious softball player and has been playing in traveling leagues for years.  I collected two boxes of t-shirts in January.  When I started prepping t-shirts I quickly realized I have enough t-shirts for two quilts.  I used two complete packages of stabilizer in prepping the t-shirts in the first box.  Actually, I had a handful of t-shirt’s leftover.  One package of stabilizer is 60” x 72”.  Normally a t-shirt quilt takes about a package and a half. 

I did have shirts that fit a 12 year old girl and t-shirts that were meant to be baggy on a high school senior.  I was able to use a simple row design with some blue fabric to augment any shirts that weren’t quite big enough for the row.  There are a couple of problems with softball t-shirts.  (1)  nylon jerseys – they don’t like to stick to the stabilizer; and (2) rubberized designs – I learned that the foot of the machine does not glide on the rubberized designs, it sticks and stretches the fabric.  And don’t forget the normal problem of t-shirts that stabilize well.  A lot of the time the problem is the shirts are not 100% cotton, they have some polyester in the thread used to make the fabric.

The backing is an RJR fabric from Bolines in Bloomington, Illinois.  Bolines has a great selection of fabric and sells fabric for significantly less than the average quilt shop. 

Another Christmas Table Runner

A number of years ago, I bought some Christmas fabric that I was in love with.  I don’t remember how much I bought.  I made myself and Patty each a table runner that year when I was in Florida for Christmas.  Scraps were used to make another table runner last summer when I was in the mode of using up scraps. 

I still love this fabric.

2019 Easter Cards

What do you do when you foundation pieced blocks on tear-away that doesn’t tear?  You cut them up and use them for card backgrounds.  At some point I made a stack of blocks from left over strips.  I used some tear-away I picked up at the Madison Expo show.  I had a stack of blocks before I attempted to tear the foundation away.  When I did that, I found that it was impossible to tear away the foundation without tearing out the stitches.  My solution was to throw the stack of blocks in the orphan block box and walk away.  I recently found those blocks and decided they would make good backgrounds for Easter Cards.

I didn’t really have good Easter colored cardstock in the house, so I first made a sample using a black cardstock.  I quickly realized that a white bunny against black cardstock just looked way too much like the Playboy bunny.  So I actually went out and bought some cardstock.  I went to Michaels and bought a package with several colors in it.  OMG is this cheap, thin cardstock.  For what I am doing with it, it doesn’t matter.  I can only think other people have struggled to make this cardstock do what they want it to do as it is the weight of construction paper.

The bunny is simply matte finished vinyl cut with the Silhouette Cameo.

2018-2019 Row by Row Exchange – Round 2

At the January guild meeting, I showed the blocks I made for Grace’s row and collected Alice’s project.  Alice has blue and white fabrics.  The row Alice made includes snowball blocks and blocks with hand embroidered snowmen.  I received Alice’s project from Grace.  Grace made a row of pieced blocks all of one design.  Alice’s directions ask not to sew the rows together.

Alice made the embroidered snowmen row.

Grace made the blue and white triangles.

I made snowflakes and trees.

Together they look good.

2018- 2019 Row by Row Exchange - Round 3

 At the March meeting I presented the row I made for Alice’s project and picked up Debbie’s project.  The theme is Halloween colors.  Debbie made a row on black fabric that is an embroidered saying.

Alice (who is a friend of Debbie) made a wonky, crazy pieced block using some ruler.  She used very busy & bright fabrics.

Grace did the third row.  She made 60 degree triangles and used the same black that Debbie used for her embroidery to anchor her row.

When I laid the three rows out to decide what I was going to do, I was at a loss.  Mostly the problem was that the project is not my style.  Cutesy Halloween fabrics or any other theme is not my thing.  I came to the conclusion that based on my time constraints I was doing something simple.  I used low contrast solids to make a row of 4 patch blocks.

Good thing I went simple.  I was working on the t-shirt quilt project and went on vacation.  Add in some weeks where I didn’t feel good since I got a significant amount of wheat in me in April and I finished my row the night before it was due.  Not my style.  I don’t like being up against a deadline.

Using Up Orphan Blocks

When I started making table runners last summer, the place I started was looking at orphan blocks.  I had 3 star blocks with gray background fabric.  I think it was a trial for something I was doing in the past.  I simply dug up more of the gray fabric and made some corresponding blocks. 

The border fabric is left over from another project where I wanted that color binding.  The 2.5 inch colored squares were all cut and some of them are quite aged.  Things go together really quickly if the pieces are already cut and one of the blocks is already made.

The background fabric is one of those pretty fabrics that are difficult to use.  One side was metallic and reminded me of a mermaid.  The other side is a batik.  I put the metallic side to the inside.  Pretty, but I still don't know what to do with it.

Mint and Rust

Sometimes the most unlikely combinations just show up.   I once upon a time made 3 Variable Star blocks.  They were so putzy, I never made any more.  The three blocks went into 2 table runners.  This is the first one.  I simply added cornerstone blocks made from random 2 1/2 inch blocks I pulled out of a bin of scraps.

Once I had the top done, I hunted for something for the back.  I found this incredible piece of fabric.  I have no idea if I bought it or it was gifted to me.  All I know is that it is beautiful fabric that looks like it was designed by someone who paints.  I found that a solid rust fabric worked for the binding.  It is a two sided table runner.

I didn’t’ know rust and mint go together so well.

It really is a scrappy table runner.  Couldn’t find enough of the light mint green solid that I used for the cornerstone blocks so there are some patches of white that blend right in.