That "DUH!" moment

I spent Wednesday evening figuring out which Senior Portraits I needed for my son's graduation announcements & which poses I wanted enlarged for gift giving items for the grandparents.  I needed 40 wallets for his announcements so I ordered 50 to have a few extras.  Well, I was tired and not paying attention as I should have been before I hit that submit button on my order...(can you see where this is going?) and I didn't realize that there were 4 wallets to each 5x7 sheet.  I did but being tired it didn't register.  Needless to say when I picked up the order on Thursday afternoon I was surprised at the size of my envelope; I have 160 extra wallets, UGH!  I told my son to have at it & enjoy handing them out to his classmates.  I plan on adding an address label to the back for him with his college address & his contact numbers.  A good way for all his info to be in one place.

This was the pose he decided to include in his announcements.

Class of 2015

This one shows what his interests are besides just being a nice pose with him dressed up.  He gets to also show his love of music, too.  Now to get the announcements into the mail!  Graduation day will be here too soon.

Handmade Pillow Cases

Last evening I made a set of pillow cases for my niece and her fiance.  I needed a gift for her bridal shower this afternoon.  I had seen a video a few weeks back on making pillow cases with french seams or burrito style.  I went to YouTube and did a search.  These two links two links were the ones I liked the best at demonstrating the layout, pinning, stitching, and the entire process.

https://youtu.be/C7yrDQ7G9so?list=PLcxe-XfzZ-sT7xgcwdTckk83sBP7KyG-Y

https://youtu.be/5ZgMiHREZLQ?list=PLcxe-XfzZ-sT7xgcwdTckk83sBP7KyG-Y

Both of these videos had a lot of useful information.  I chose fabric that matched the design from my niece's wedding invitations.  Her theme is mustaches and smooches.  A very adorable theme.  I had ordered the material I wanted over a week ago when I was unable to find exactly what I wanted locally.  However, the last piece was NOT here on Friday to make my gift, Boo Hoo!  I spent Friday evening searching several fabric stores for a suitable solution.  I was able to find a solution, not my 1st choice, but it will work.

Above is the layout process and pinning for the pillowcases.  All fabric is laid right side up.  WOW this was so difficult for me to remember.  I did have to rip out one seam because I goofed and had the cuff laid the wrong way.  Double check before stitching!

Thie above photo shows the burritto all pinned together ready to stitch.

Below is a photo of my new walking foot for my machine.  I had also picked up a 1/4 inch foot too for my machine.

I have to say that this was one of the best $45 I've ever spent.  I can't believe that I have struggled for years with trying to get my fabrics to not "walk" as I'm stitching even when having it pinned.  Ah, it was wonderful to see such beautiful seams!  I am anticipating the use of my 1/4 inch foot on my next quilting project, I can hardly wait.

For my niece I decided to make her pillow cases opposites.  Smooches for her fiance Adam, and Mustaches for Krista, with the coordinating fabric for the cuff of the cases, and a dark taupe for the band.  I'm very happy with the end results.  Especially since it's the 1st time I've EVER done french seams.  My son was ragging on me that I've lead a sheltered life with sewing since he'd done french seams in Home-EC.  Gotta love it when the boy has done something that Mom hasn't, especially in an area we normally don't associate as manly things to do.

I can't wait to see my nieces response to the pillowcases.  I'll have to let you know later as this will be posting while I'm at the shower.  Below is a photo of her opening my gift.

I had some extra time before the shower today so I stitched some coordinating fabric on to two tea towels for her as well.  Below is a photo of them.

I got the gift wrapped & I'm ready to head out the door for an afternoon of fun.    TTFN

My 2nd T-shirt Quilt (#2)

When cleaning up today while getting ready for Easter Dinner tomorrow; I took a break from cleaning to discuss the quilt with my daughter & to get her input about making this one a rag quilt style.  She has SO many t-shirts that I can put them on both sides of the quilt.  I have 10 more to cut for the backing & then I can plan the layout for the 2nd side of the quilt.  My daughter & I laid out the top-side of the quilt which I'll call side #1.  Below is a photo of the first go round.  As I found with my son's quilt, there will be a few revisions with the layout before I'm going to be satisfied with the colors & flow of the quilt-top.

I was attempting to keep her band/school shirts to one side of the quilt and her cheer leading shirts on the other side.  However there is too much yellow to the one side and too much white on the other.  I am going to have to mix it up more.  I'm also still debating over the "D.A.R.E." shirt being in the center.  Thinking that maybe it should be her green cheer jacket instead.

This angle shows the lopsidedness of the colors.  I'd like it more balanced than what it is now.  I also have 10 more shirts to cut which I may do before I start cooking dinner tomorrow.

I'll also need to rearrange my furniture so that I have more floor space for working with full/queen sized quilt layouts.  This just isn't working. LOL!

My good camera is in Florida with my husband & son on a Band trip to Disney.  I had to resort to my cell phone camera which just makes my skin crawl, but I wanted to remember the layout of the shirts.  My phone did fairly well.

I am anticipating getting into this project to get it done for my daughter.  We did make a trip to Hobby Lobby tonight & purchased the batting.  I now have everything here to keep moving on this project in between working & everything else on my plate.  Hang on for the ride.

My 2nd T-shirt Quilt

Today I started on my 2nd t-shirt quilt.  This one is for my daughter Lizzie.  I am thinking of making it a rag quilt since she has SOooo many t-shirts; this way I can sandwich the batting with a t-shirt square on each side and double the number of shirts used.  I already have 40 squares cut and another shopping bag full of shirts!

This is my two piles of shirts already cut.  I also had a jacket for Lizzie from cheerleading that I've decided to cut apart and remove the zippers so I can add it to the quilt.  I'll need to do some sewing before that square is ready.  I'll post a photo of it once I'm finished stitching the pockets closed & making the seam where the zipper was located.

Lizzie's quilt will have shirts from school, band, cheerleading, Girl Scouts and Job's Daughter's.  She also has a very good variety of colors.  I'm anxious to lay out the squares for this one.

I took a break this evening to go out to dinner with my Husband, tomorrow is our 19th Wedding Anniversary.  We had a terrific meal and enjoyed our time alone without the kids.  Amazing how 2 hours alone will recharge your batteries.

T-shirt Quilt Day #4

I  had a lot of stitching today.  I finished all 5 of the columns on Saturday & pressed every seam.  I stitched the first two columns together.

Sunday afternoon was a day of more stitching.  I even had a helper...she has earned the title of "Escape Artist" since she has figured out how to jimmy the door to the room where we pen her when we don't want her to interfere.  :0)  The little stinker!

Right after my son took this picture he took her back to the room & got her to play with some of her toys.  She loves to be around people.  I was working in the dining room, kitchen & living rooms so I had enough space for everything & I STILL was cramped at times.

The hardest part was folding & rolling the quilt to stitch the sashing for the entire length & with the interfacing it didn't want to fold and bend nicely for me.  I also had to rip out two blocks and restitch them into place to get the sashing to line up, it was off by 1/2 an inch!  Way too much to let it be.  The shirts must have been longer than the others.  It was well worth the extra time to fix it then, You can't even notice it now.

I finished the quilt top Sunday evening about 11:00 pm.  Just in time to go to bed.  This morning the kids helped me take this photo of the quilt top.  I have 8 foot ceilings, just enough room to "stretch" out the quilt top.  Now I'll be shipping it off to campus quilt for the quilting process.  I'll post a FINAL picture of the completely finished quilt once I get it back.

Panstoria Content Sale

New kits, New "old" kits, and a 30% sale
It's a big day in the Panstoria.com store! In addition to 63 beautiful new kits from our designers, we have 135 kits purchased from Creative Memories last fall that have not previously been available in the Panstoria store.
To celebrate, all kits in the store will be marked down 30% from today through midnight (Eastern Time) Sunday, March 8. NOTE: No coupon is required. The prices in the store have been marked down already.
The kits from Creative Memories were previously available only on CD (from Creative Memories) or as Showcase giveaways. They are available for purchase from Panstoria for the first time. You can view and purchase these kits from this page: www.panstoria.com/store/category-page/category/content_from_cds

HAPPY SHOPPING!!

www.panstoria.com/store/category-page/category/digital_content


 Disclaimer:  I do receive compensation for any products you purchase at no additional cost to you.

Thank You!

T-shirt Quilt Day #3

Well, I had a chance to work on my son's quilt again today.  This part was the most nerve wracking for me; cutting the sashing!  I found a wonderful PDF online from http://www.seamstobeyouandme.com/2013/03/03/t-shirt-quilt-tutorial-for-beginners/ that I used this as a guide.  Wonderful directions and images for this part of a quilt.  THANK YOU!  After reading her directions through a few times and making my choices for my quilt I made a trip to the fabric store this past Sunday and made the purchase I mentioned in my earlier post.

http://chrisscrafterscorner.blogspot.com/2015/02/t-shirt-quilt-day-2.html

I decided to make my sashing 2 1/2 inches wide; so I needed to cut my strips 3 inches wide.  My son had found a yardage calculator online for me that was a huge help before my trip to the fabric store.  Sashing-Border Calculator  My son was all too glad to help out Mom with the math & show off his computer search skills.


I swayed from seamstobeyouandme.com 's directions because I wanted my vertical sashing to be all one solid length, not short pieces like the blocks in her directions.  I was doing well until I cut too many horizontal strips.  Oh no!  Fortunately I bought extra fabric & caught my mistake in time.  I had to piece my vertical sashing with two strips.  Not too bad, for having cut wrong.  The stack of material in the top right of the photo is what I have left over.  :0)

I was able to get all the horizontal sashing sewn on the 30 blocks for my son's quilt.  Pressed ALL the seams, then I cut all of the vertical sashing, stitched it together, pressed ALL the seams and attached one vertical sashing.

I got the 1st column sewn together & seams pressed.   I had three hours in this morning before I went to work & then I started at it again this evening and worked off & on for another eight hours.  It's been a productive evening.  Now I only have four more columns to stitch together & then sew five more vertical strips of sashing together.  Here's hoping I can finish it tomorrow & Sunday.  I'm getting anxious to see it finished.

T-shirt Quilt Day #2

Well I have gotten a bit further with my t-shirt quilt process.  I located my missing interfacing (fusible stabilizer) but I have yet to locate my Gingher scissors (uh-oh!).  Anyhow if you'd like to follow the complete process from beginning to end I've included a link back to my 1st day ( http://chrisscrafterscorner.blogspot.com/2015/02/t-shirt-quilt.html ).  Today I started with stabilizing all of the blocks and a few for the applique.  I was short on stabilizer, so a trip to the fabric store was in order.  I also bought material for the sashing between the blocks as that will be coming up next.  I also had to purchase a ball point needle for sewing on the jersey knit fabric.  In all my years of sewing I have never needed one!

I found a great print for the sashing & I'll probably use for the border as well with a dark hunter green.  My son wanted something soccer themed.  This was a great find & also on sale!  Can't beat that.  The soccer balls are about the size of a quarter, and the background is black.

I was able to get the exact same type of stabilizer (yea!  Not always possible).  That made my life much easier.  It's been a LONG time since I've had to use a pressing cloth.  This was done to protect the squares and my iron from the printing on the t-shirts.  I did manage to mess one up, though.  Oh, I was so upset!  My son though told me, "Mom, it's not any worse than the stains I've gotten on some these shirts; go ahead and use it...it won't look that bad."  I suppose that will be my "humility block" as the great quilters say.  I know every piece of hand made work has a mistake in it somewhere, but I was hoping for something less noticeable.  You'll have to see if you can locate it.

Now that all of the stabilizer is on I have laid out the blocks again for a final once over before completing the applique process & squaring up the blocks.

 I had a little more room on the living room floor, but not quite enough still...this is the top half of George's quilt top.  the shirt in the center is a bit washed out, it's more of a heather than a white.  I'm fairly happy with the break up of colors.

 

This photo shows  the next two rows with exception of the very end blocks on the right (I had to place them on the chair) I ran out of floor space.  The grey block with the white sleeve is prepared for me to applique stitch the edges.  That's also something I've not done in over 30 years, this will be interesting.

These are the block that wouldn't fit on the floor.  They are two of his scouting shirts and one from marching band.  I tried to keep all of them from soccer, but felt I didn't have enough shirts to make the size quilt I wanted for him.

This is the last one for the layout process...it show all of the bottom row except for the one that was on the chair in the previous photo.  I'm getting excited to get the sashing cut & get this stitched together.  I can't wait to see it.  Just hoping the rest of the process goes as well as it has so far.  This is my first attempt at a quilt this large.

These are the blocks that I had to applique.  I am extremely pleased with how they came out.  A new machine and years since I've done this type of sewing.  I had one that got a bit puckered, but I'm hoping the quilting process will hide the little bit it shows.  These blocks also have been squared up & are ready for the sashing.  Today I'm going to be preparing the fabric & cutting the sashing.  I only work for 2 hours today, so I'll have time to do this.  Who knows maybe I'll have a completed quilt top to share with you all by Wednesday.  Wouldn't that be just wonderful!

I would enjoy hearing some of your feedback, please drop me a line (but be kind) I am not thick skinned when it comes to my handiwork.   :0)

T-shirt Quilt

Today I decided was the day to begin cutting that stack of t-shirts (2 shopping bags full) for my son's and daughter's quilts.  I am glad to say that on this bitter cold (-25 with wind chill) day; I feel that I have accomplished something.  I was able to cut 30 squares for my son's quilt.  It's enough to create a full/queen quilt top.  Now I need to iron on the interfacing and decide what color I want the sashing & how wide, as well as if I want to sew the quilt top or send it all out to have someone else complete it.

I'm posting the few photos I took of the layout for 20 of the 15-inch squares, I didn't want to forget the layout after I had it adjusted for color, etc.  I've since added 10 more squares, after some reading I discovered that I should have 30 squares not 20 to make a Full/Queen sized quilt.

**PLEASE excuse the messy room, with the snow and the cold my living room has become the dumping ground for all the packages, backpack, and any other items no one wants to put away.  The joy of teenagers in the house ;)

 My living room floor wasn't quite wide enough for me to layout the entire quilt.  I was looking at the photograph and I see a few squares that need to be re-arranged...

In this photo you can see I have a few squares that are smaller than the rest.  I am debating on how to work these.  Shall I applique them to the larger 15-inch t-shirt square or should I use fabric to build the square to the needed size?

This is a close up of one of the squares I need to make a decision about...applique or patchwork to build it up?  This one is the largest at 12 inches square.  Decisions, decisions...tomorrow is another day & I need a clear head to think about this one.  The white sleeve with the #30 I like the idea of applique on the grey square at an angle.  The others, I just am still on the fence about them.

Let the Cropping Begin!

I hope that you'll join me along with the wonderful Pixies at Pixels 2 Pages.  Lots of great challenges to get you moving during this cold sluggish weekend.  As always they will have freebies and a ton of FUN on tap for everyone.  Not a digital cropper - no problem, it's not that difficult to adapt the challenges to traditional scrap booking.

Dig in & ENJOY!  I'm getting ready for the next snow storm so I'll be catching up tomorrow & Sunday.