Finishes of a different kind

 I haven't made a T-shirt quilt in many years, but when my daughters childhood friend Sara asked me to make her husband's Warriors souvenir shirts into a quilt I was happy to oblige!   Sara and Troy introduced my daughter Naomi to her (now) husband Josh who also happened to be childhood friends with Troy.   The circles of friendship have been a wonderful part of their growing up.  It's one of those gifts that keeps giving!  

Anywho,  I enjoyed this project.  I feel I have learned a lot about constructing T-shirt quilts over the years.  Nothing like Trial and Error to teach you what works!

The color scheme was easy;  Black -blue- gold with a smattering of grey.  These were all xLg T-shirts with large motifs so i just cut 15" squares from all the T's.  I pieced them using my Serger that has a wonderful even feed mechanism so all the blocks came out pretty square.  

Probably the hardest part was deciding how to quilt it.  I've found that it's best not to quilt through the painted parts.  It messes up the graphics and texture.  So I try to figure out ways to stitch around the motifs while keeping the quilting as even as possible.

 I like to use fleece poly blankets for backings on T-shirt quilts.  It makes a very soft and cuddly quilt despite all the paint.  Sometimes the non quilted spaces get a little bigger than I like but since it's only two layers and both are essentially stretch knits that's really not a problem. And it's way more economical than cost of Batting plus backing fabric.

It helps to have iconic graphics too.  It's hard to beat an outline of the Golden Gate Bridge :)

Another off beat project this past month was that I volunteered to make a Banner for our Annual Firewise Neighborhood Meeting.

I figured if I was gonna make a big thing to hang I might as well make a quilt.  I've got all the materials I need and the construction is all familiar territory.

I borrowed the big red circle idea from the fliers that we send out as reminders a few days before the meeting.

Firewise is a national organisation that helps Neighborhoods in high risk wildfire areas to organise and educate homeowners how to prepare in the event of a wildfire. 

Our neighborhood group started after the CZU fire.  We knew we were in a high risk area for fires but when one happens that close to home it is very motivating!

Here it is near the beginning of the neighborhood road. I only basted the date and time so I can take it off for next years meeting's info.

It's hard to imagine such a grim subject on a beautiful day like that?!

But the dry grass does tell it's own tale.

Yes, Summer has finally arrived here on the central coast.

  And the tomatoes and berries are getting ripe for picking...

We're gonna have a good crop of black berries this year!  I made a Crisp with these berries.  Nothing says Summer like a bowl full of fresh picked berries!

I hope your Summer's are going well!

take care, cw

  

I

A Lot Goin' On!

A Lot goin' on!  Mostly fun!  My son and G-daughters came to visit from Indiana.  It's always so great to see them, they always lift my spirits!  And we babysat our 16 month old grandbaby so her mom and dad could have a grown-up weekend.  Such a fun age but toddlers sure do ware me out!  And carry germs!  Me and G-dad both came down with some kind of viral crud after she went home.  We're better now. 

 Through it all I'm sewing / quilting (or at least thinking about it).... Here's the latest:

As I mentioned in my last post I've been working on some STEM themed quilts to be given to a Science Summer Camp program to promote Interest in Science for 8th grade girls.  There will be 80 Campers and our guild managed to make 92 (55" x 70" size) quilts in the space of about 3 months!

  

I was just working out the layout for this one in my last post.  I settled on the light grey patches.  It helped tone down the yellow.  I really like the way it turned out.  I had a lot of fun looking up some of the famous scientists.  So many brilliant researchers!

Here's the back.  It was fun to try and find techno fabrics in my stash to reflect all the Inventions etc.  Don't look to close some of them are a real stretch! lol

The panel in the middle of this quilt made and easy start to a "Homage to Butterflies".

!

It was fun going through all my butterfly fabric for the backing.

Here's the labelng that was provided by the project.

I also quilted tops for several other people.  There's a lot of variety!

Here

Computer themed

Solar system

Chemistry

Turbines.  I thought this was particularly clever.  9 of the blocks in this top had pinwheel / whirligig type blocks. aka windmills and water wheels which are indeed Turbines!

Well it was it was a lot of fun participating in that project!  I hope they do it again next year I'd be more than happy to take another dive into my stash of Science themed fabrics!!!

I hope your Summers are going well!

Take care, cw

Happy Mother's Day!

Be ye Mother, Daughter, Auntie or whatever, enjoy a day for yourself !

To often we rush around taking care of everybody else

Today is for Self Care! 💖

 

Yikes it's Almost May!

March wizzed by and April too!  But I keep sewing.  It's my go-to zero calorie comfort food and fun pass time  So here's are some of my latest projects...

I got this top quilted in mid March using my new favorite all over pattern I'm calling Modern squiggle.

I like the cheeriness of this one so much I am hesitant to give it away, but it will make a good hospice quilt.  Here's the back...

I always try to match the backs to the fronts in color and style as much as possible.  I think this one really works with the front.

Another finish this month is a quilt I made for a special Summer program up at UC Santa Cruz.  Some Science educators have put together a special STEM Summer camp program targeting 8th Grade girls to hopefully create more interest for them in studying Science.  They ask our local quilt guild if we could make Science themed quilts for the students which they could then take home as a souvenir for their Summer Camp experiences.  This is issue very near and dear to my heart being a retired Science teacher.  And of course being a quilter I have more than a bit of fabric to cover the topic.   I decided to start with Chemistry because I had this great panel with Chemisry graphics.

I love these fabrics, so cheerful and fun!

The next 2 quilts are still in the planning stages.

The one on the left is all about Butterflies. That will be easy peasy.  I have soooo much butterfly fabric.   The one on the right has this crazy yellow fabric. It's printed with the names of famous Scientist next to little icons associated with what they are famous for. Like an old fashioned telephone for Alexander Graham Bell. There's a date of the year they were born under the icon.  There are about 30-40 names.  Only 3 are women Scientists.  That kinda says it all!    I'm having trouble finding a mate for the yellow fabric.  Should it be pink for girl power or maybe a light blue to compliment the yellow?  Any suggestions?

I have  few a few flea market finds to share.  We always get such great donations.  It always astounds me what treasures people give away.

This top is so exceptional I snatched it right up.

 

It must have been paper pieced (a technique I have no patience for)  The design is so much fun!  I will quilt  it and donate it to the Live auction next year to benefit Hospice.

This quilt top was donated by a well known quilter in our guild.  

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But it was a bit to small for a Camp Erin quilt so I added the two outer borders to make it the right size.  About 55" by 65".

We got lots of packets of vintage block donations this year.  I saw these and grabbed them.  I'm really going to try and do something with these blocks.  They are in really good conditions for 30's blocks and so pretty!

I hope Spring is going well with you!

Take care, cw

 

Still here, still Sewin'

I'm still away from home but my trusty travel machine is keeping me busy.  I found some pins to help sew those rows of of 4" hexies together (see last post).  I think I've found a good border fabric for it too, so I hope to get the top done this week.

  I don't have a lot of wall space in my temporary diggs for a design wall so I abandon the Batik scraps that I was exploring in my last post.  I went back to my stash for another bundle of pre-cuts and finished this top in pretty short order!

Then I took all the scraps from that project and made a scrappy table runner.

The lighting wasn't very good for the pic above but in the pick below you can really see how pretty the fabrics are.  Gotta love those fabric bundles!

Even tho' I'm away from home I was still able to make it to my local guild Quilt Show.here's a couple of my pix.

I think this was my favorite!  To bad they did not have more info. about it.

Well that's all for now.  Have a great March!

Take care, cw

 

Happy New Year!

December was a blurr and January is fast approaching the same situation.  I hope all your holidays were cheery!  Mine were!  All my kids and grand kids were here.  It's always super fun to have everyone for the holidays but it does wear me out. 

I have not had much time for sewing but I did manage to get most of Ari's quilt top finished (first pix in my Dec. post)  and  about 80% quilted.   Enough,  so I was able to take it off the frame and display it on her bed when she arrived!! 

The inner and outer most borders turned out more complicated than I had planned but I think it was worth the effort.  Ari really liked it!

I had to kind of fudge on the corners.  I ended up hand sewing the

corner wedges and trimming them after to fit.  There not perfect but from a distance they're not bad. 😁😁

 

I had a lot of fun quilting it too.  Lots of different patterns.

After finishing the quilting there's just the binding.  Ugh, with a big quilt like that 87" square it'll take more than one evening in front of the TV to get it done.

I've been trying to keep with my NO Starting New Project , but we are away from home now so I indulged in bringing a packet of pre cut 4" hexies I bought on sale years ago.

I got the rows assembled only discover I had forgot to bring straight pins!  The rows are kinda wonky.  I didn't think I could sew them without pins so back into the basket to take home.

Of course I brought some back-up projects and I broke out a basket of Batik scraps. 

 My favorite idea of "Fun" sewing.  What's "Fun" sewing you ask?  To me that's something I can sew without worrying to much about whether everything is going to match, points meet, etc. etc. etc.  Sewing without stress!

What's your mode of "Fun" sewing?!

Last but not least...

New Years Day at my house...

My brother-in-law and his family (who live at the beach) have a New Year's Day tradition of jumping in the ocean (fyi it's 60 degrees) on new years day!  Brrrrrrrr!  But because the end of the Santa Cruz pier fell into the ocean recently,  leaving debris floating and washed up on all the local beaches, jumping in the ocean didn't seem like a very safe idea.  So I invited them to our house to jump into our 60 degree pool instead.  Of course the added bonus was once the ritual was complete they could quickly jump into the nice warm jacuzzi!

Here's the stop action:

Getting psyched to do the deed...

...and taking the plunge!

My kids and G-kids, My brother in  law's daughter and her family and a family friend.  10 people moreless jumping into the pool all at once...

And then quickly scrambling out of the pool and into the jacuzzi as fast as they could!

It was sure fun to watch!

And after I finished setting up the brunch table I jumped in too!

I tried to post the video but the video button didn't seem to work 

(or more likely I just didn't do it correctly) 😂

 I hope your New Year's are full of joy and wonder!

take care, cw

S

 

Happy December!

 November whizzed by.  I moreless kept to my diet of quilting more than sewing.  So I finished binding the 3 quilts I pictured in my last post.  Ignored the UFO's that I showed last post and quilted another of the tops that I showed.  Here 'tis all bound and ready to go!

Lots of fun fabrics in this one a real mis-mash of prints but I think it works?!

And since I felt like I was on a roll I quilted and bound this top .

I found this in the Guild Flea Market..  I thought it was really cool.  I always wonder why finished tops  like that get donated to The Flea Market.  So much work went into it and it looks great to me!   Hard to say.  I figured I'd finish it and donated to the Quilt Show Auction.

Now I am sewing again.  I want to get both my G-daughters new bed quilts done for xmas.  Sadies's is all bound and ready to go but Ari's is in pieces.  Here's what I've got so far...

It will probably change, who knows?!

Happy December!

take care, cw