T-shirt quilt complete!

I really like the 60-degree shapes in the finished project; I'm planning another t-shirt project for later this year, and I think I'll use the same concept again. Just a few photos before it heads off to its owner this afternoon:

Finished! (This is the requisite "toes at the bottom" quilt photo.)

I marked two-inch lines across all the background triangles so I could quilt the flower-of-life motif on them. I only had brief flashes of regret about that decision, around the time I got to the larger blocks in the center...but one must persevere!

I outlined the continent shapes on this t-shirt section -- I like that you can distinguish the shapes even on the back.

She chose a wonderful backing fabric (Essentials collection by Wilmington Prints), which feels like the softest suede in its finished state. It's very snuggly. The quilting designs are nicely visible in the right light.

Shirts everywhere

This week's sewing has been a whirlwind of making favor bags for my boy's tenth birthday party (including multisided geek dice, candy, and a dime, because he's ten..."dime bags"...get it?), as well as his quirky birthday shirt, which has apparently become a tradition in this house:

Pink Panther barbecue shirt

In the spare moments, I finished all the pieces for the t-shirt quilt. Now I'm left to choose from a fairly evenly-spaced layout...

Blur One...

...or a more composed central star arrangement:

...or Blur Two?

Perhaps I'll let the quilt's owner decide. Either way, I'll get the pieces sewn together tomorrow so I can baste next weekend and start the quilting.

T-shirt progress

I mentioned that a friend of mine has asked me to make a t-shirt quilt; I thought I'd try something a little different than other t-shirt quilts that I've made and seen by using...wait for it...hexagons (there it is again!). Okay, technically the pieces won't all be hexagons, but variations on the 60-degree angle shapes nonetheless.

On Friday night I decided to start by ironing the stabilizer onto the shirts that she gave me back on October. But that's a boring job to do all at once, so once the first shirt was ready I decided just to give it a whirl and start cutting the shapes. The largest size on the hex-and-more ruler was perfect. I added matching triangles to end up with 12" triangle units (thanks again for the Christmas present, boys!), which will be the building block for the whole project.

First unit from Aimee's triangle t-shirt quilt

Two of the pieces were so small (and obviously from one shirt) that I combined them into a single triangle: I cut the upper piece using the Hex n More "Jewel" shape, then added a thin wide strip with the eyes as the bottom of the triangle unit.

Combination unit from Aimee's triangle t-shirt quilt

Once I had the first few pieces worked up, momentum kept me going. By the time the boys' movie was finished, I had cut all of the background triangles (from a pretty jewel-colored print that coordinates perfectly with this collection of shirts), and trimmed & pieced 11 of the 17 shirts. For the pieces that were much larger, I squared (or angled) them off as large as possible, then added coordinating fabrics to get them to a usable shape. So far I have one 12" hexagon -- I don't have a ruler for that, but I know how to cut it with my regular 12.5" ruler -- a 24" hexagon that runs off the upper-right corner, a 24" diamond, and a mid-size parallelogram shape. Another evening of work and I should be able to finish the remaining few shirt segments, then the huge pieces will go together in no time. This is a really fun process, and I think it's shaping up nicely!

Aimee's triangle t-shirt quilt, shaping up!

Ravens, Quilting Begun

Jen's raven table topper is all basted up and has been a great wall decoration for this halloween season. I used the football day (go Pats!) to quilt it. I put some feathers in the center, up to the part where the ravens begin, then I skipped the ravens and did some curls in the outermost regions of the Nevermore fabric. The batik got a nice straight-line treatment, but the big wreath of feathers in the outer grey border segment came out really fantastic, which I DO say so myself! It's a little dark to get a photo of the full project, but here's a detail shot that shows just a segment of each section.

My nine-year-old is increasingly jealous that this one will get a new home. I am trying to think of something to make him for yule using the raven fabric.

Ravens, continued

Picked up the necessary Nevermore fabric after my Tuesday night meeting, and I also found the perfect red-and-purple batik to use as the accent color. The pieces of the raven tabletopper are all cut and ready to assemble! (Well, not quite -- I still haven't cut the 2" border that goes at the very edge.) When my 9-year-old comes downstairs in the morning, sees it and says "Wow, Mom, what is that?!? I love it!" I suppose I'm on the right track.

The developing conspiracy...

I am trying to pick up the pace of posting on here, but my computer is in the process of failing. A brand spanking new laptop (first new computer in eight years!) is on order, so if you find yourself weeping and pulling your hair out for want of new posts, rest assured that I will be more active in November once I figure out how to configure said laptop.

Ravens begun

A friend of mine who is a serious fan of all things "raven" (it is hoped that this fandom doesn't extend to a certain NFL team from Baltimore...) commissioned me to make a table topper after she saw the Nevermore fabric that I used to make my sister a table runner earlier this summer. I showed her a few different concepts with hexagons and pinwheels that might work on her round table, but we settled on the decagon pattern that I bought at one of the Newington Schoolhouse meetings last year. I couldn't resist this nifty ruler set -- I love that it has pieces with 72 and 36-degree angles. (Stars! Decagons! So many geometrical delights!)

I bought the raven fabric this weekend, got it all washed and ironed, set to cutting...and realized that I miscounted the repeat...so, sadly, another stop at the quilt shop will need to be in my immediate future. (What a bummer.) In the meantime, the pieces that I do have look spectacular in the round:

If only this mathematically inclined quilter could count...

Bye-bye baby quilt

The puppy dog baby quilt is en route to its new home in Pennsylvania! I think it's just the sweetest little thing. Here are a few detail shots showing the finished meander quilting, the curved corners, and the custom label.

Finished size 42 x 54". 

The meander quilting was very soft and wiggly (like a baby). This should give a very nice quilty effect once it's washed.

The quilt was a scant hair too wide to use a single fabric, so I pieced these two prints. I love the polka dots at the top -- they look like they were made specifically to go with the doggy fabric.

Daddy is apparently a huge MJ fan, so the Air Jordan had to be on the quilt somewhere by special request. (Baby's name redacted -- sorry, NSA!)

Baby sweetness

I finally took the 20 minutes to baste my latest commission, a sweet little baby quilt with the most adorable puppy fabric. I'll get this quilted in no time; I'm just going to do a meander with a Sulky Blendable thread in the perfect lovely shades of light orange (not "peach"!).

Front view of commissioned baby quilt (42 x 54")

Back view of baby quilt (Andover's Asbury Streamers and  Moda Meadow Friends polka dot, which will also be the binding).

Star of David finished!

I still have to stitch on the little label, but the Star of David quilt is finished! I really love how the flower of life quilting came out.

For Sherri's dad, 64 x 84"

For those of you that are interested in the process, I did all of this quilting with my walking foot. I made a plastic template of just the edge of one-sixth of a 6-inch-radius circle, which I used with a regular chalk marker to mark the gentle S-shapes on every seam line, two times per seam line (S, then backwards S). I did this in all three directions, from the center out. It wasn't the speediest technique -- lots of back and forth from the machine to the marking table -- but I ended up with pretty circular-looking circles so it was worth the effort! A great way to get an allover effect on a pretty big quilt using just a domestic machine and a walking foot!

 

The back coordinates nicely without being too floral or feminine...

Star of David backing fabric!

...and to finish it off, I found the perfect stripe with just a hint of sparkle to use as the binding.

Olive and teal striped binding!

I don't have a photo of the label, but it's a lovely poem, written in both Hebrew and English:

May it be Your will O LORD my God, and the God of my fathers,
To let me lie down in peace, and to let me rise up again in peace.

A coordinating pillowcase too...thank you, Sherri!

Still quiltin'

I had originally planned to do just straight-line quilting on the Star of David quilt, but it really called out for something more special, so I've been working on a Flower of Life quilting motif. It's a little effort to mark and sew only one line at a time, but it's turning out really pretty. The afternoon sunlight coming in my sewing window is perfect for showing off quilting lines -- I'm so lucky to have this wonderful little corner of real estate for my very own purposes!

Halfway done!

This close-up (with some loose threads and pins still in place) shows the motif so beautifully.

Storm! Star!

While the storm is gathering its breath and taking aim (if I were this storm, and if my Faithful Readers will permit me a moment of anthropomorphizing, I would take special note of the addresses of the people who are laughing at its current state...), I got the Star of David top ready to quilt!!! I sewed the last three rows together last night, and added some narrow borders around the whole thing this morning. I impressed myself with frugality this time; the borders for this were the trimmings from the oversized back of the Autumn Rapid City quilt (Hey! No "finished" photo of that one!?!). I knew it was a good idea to save those two-inch strips!

Approximately 64 x 86"

I really like the effect of the colors shading from dark to light on every point of the central star; I'm glad I took the time to arrange them to give the illusion of dimensionality.

Now I can turn my attention to a new pattern that I picked up at my meeting on Monday night, using some nifty rulers with 36 and 72-degree angles. Pentagons! Decagons! PENROSE!!

Star progress

I finished sewing the rows for the Star of David quilt! I really like how these colors work together; it's very soft and elegant. Big storm on the horizon for the weekend, so (if the power stays on) I might be able to get this top mostly sewn together this weekend.

A New Project

I recently agreed to make a quilt on commission (!!) for a woman who wants to give it to her father, who is a messianic rabbi. It just so happens that I am super into patterns with 60-degree angles (anyone else have a favorite angle?), so I sketched out a pattern for a large Star of David quilt, with some smaller stars in the center and on the corners:

I'm using 6" triangles to construct the whole thing, because we're aiming to have it finished by mid-March, and big pieces = quick turnaround. She asked for colors that would coordinate in a room that's largely seafoam green, so I pulled out some teals and olives, and all the rest of my light neutral stash, which was already depleted from the Easy Street quilt, and is now completely gone.

Triangles under the setting sun.

After our trip to Old Sturbridge Village (where they were cutting ice off the mill pond and serving warm mulled cider) this morning, we stopped in at That 1.99 Fabric Store (aptly named) and I found some spot-on perfect fabric to use as a binding -- I love striped bindings -- for this quilt:

Couldn't be more perfect for the colors I'm using...also a good checkpoint to keep the olive green accents in line.

I also picked up five yards of this gorgeous print to use as the back. I love that it's the perfect teal/neutral colors, but it's not too feminine.

"Tokyo Rococo" by Andover (which has consistently been my favorite fabric company!)

I spent a few hours cutting triangles, which went a lot more quickly than I had anticipated, then a quick wall arrangement, and this is where I am:

My design wall is seasonally abbreviated by the couch, which we have temporarily moved away from our sliding doors because it's just Too Darn Cold to sit so close to a wall of glass right now. Talk about your first-world problems, huh?