That Little Shirt Quilt Top

Here's the latest on that little shirt quilt top I keep posting about ... It's coming along! In yesterday's post, I mentioned lots of nine-patches and snowball corners ... the results of those particular pictures is the quilt top in tomorrow's post. But the middle of THIS quilt top was the "test run" for that one ... 

I mentioned the triangle border in some of my (many) previous posts about this quilt top (here and here and here) ... Below is the picture right after the triangles were added. (This is before the most recent narrow outer border in a neutral color.)

One of the reasons I love this border is how cute and little the triangles are! (That's also one of the reasons why it took this long to get the border put together and stitched on!)

This quilt top is made completely out of shirts - which I love. 

Speaking of shirt fabric, I recently cut some "fat quarters" from cotton shirts - and those "fat quarters" are for sale this week in my eBay listings. They're standard fat quarter size (18" x 21") but they're cut from recycled shirts. So, if you know anyone who wants to sew with some great solids, stripes, and plaids, without the fuss and muss of cutting up shirts - take a look at my latest eBay listings! 

Right now, this quilt top is 38" x 48" ... I'm thinking of more borders to add, so it'll probably be a while before this one is done.

Shirt-Quilt Nine Patches and Snowballs

I've had this plan drawn for a while on graph paper, and I've been working bit by bit on a couple of quilt tops made out of recycled cotton shirts ... 

The big quilt top has seventy-something EACH of nine-patches and snowball blocks; the other quilt top (the test one) has just a few.

Lots of progress has been happening on both quilt tops; I'm hoping to have some pics of both by the end of the week, so stay tuned.

It's kind of fun to have made some quilt tops entirely out of recycled shirts! (Now, I'm wondering, should I keep the "shirt" thing going by making the quilt backs entirely out of shirts?? Not sure ... We'll see.)

Like I said, more progress pics to show later this week. Aaaand, I'm hoping to list some fat-quarters-cut-from-shirts in my eBay listings later this week too. 

A Mini Window Quilt

I've been meaning to make a mini window quilt for the other window in the girls' room ...
Since this one was little (about 30" x 30"), it went quickly.

I used the same flowers as the big floral window quilt - I just used a little bit of floral on a background of white-and-off-white squares cut from sheets. I quilted this one with a bigger-than-usual loopy free-motion design.

Actually, I used the same snowball-corner technique as on the shirts-and-sheets window quilt - but for the corners on this one, I used bits of the same floral as the girls' big window quilt. So it's all nice and coordinated. :-)

Beads - Pink and White and Blue

Here's a necklace I made for one of my girls for Christmas ...

This one has the three strings of beads connected at the clasp ...

I had fun with lots of pink, white, and blue glass beads ...

I made a similar necklace for each of the girls for Christmas ... and I'm pleased with how the necklaces turned out.

Little by Little

I've been working on border-pieces for that little shirt quilt ... (and, yes, I realize I called that last post "Little by Little Something", too, but, it really is a small bit of progress.) I'm pleased with the little bit, though - especially since those little bits really do add up!

Lots of little triangle units all sewn together to go around the middle of my latest shirt quilt top. It's been fun to play with fabrics from some of my favorite fabric designers. :-)

Beads - Blue and Silver and Black

In December, I had fun making some things with beads ...

I made a set of three necklaces out of blue and silver and black glass beads.

I decided to do "easy", so they have no clasps - they're just the right size to pull over your head.

The necklaces coordinate, but can also be worn separately.

I gave these to my mom for Christmas, but I've got some more beads like these, which is a good thing, because I think I'll make myself a set, too!

 

I've decided that stringing beads onto nylon thread and making easy necklaces is fun and (relatively) relaxing, so it's one of my latest "couch" projects ...

Anyhoo, this was a fun set to put together.

Keep an eye out for some more pics of my latest bead-projects ... 

My Life is Like a Quilt

There's another new page on my blog (in the tabs at the top) ...
It's called "My Life is Like a Quilt"

I've always been fascinated by the quilt designs that require sewing a bit and then cutting a bit, sewing some more, and cutting some more. 

In reality, that can be a lot like the way life works sometimes. If you read the new page, you'll get what I mean. 

I've been trying to figure out a way to make this story a part of my blog. For me, there's always the feeling that this blog should be a little bit anonymous, since strangers read it. But, at the same time, our life stories often contain elements that might encourage somebody else. So, the new page is my effort in that direction. While remaining a little anonymous ...

New Page: "My Other Projects"

A while back, I started a "My Quilts" Page ... as a sort of album of some of my quilt projects.

Since I often blog about non-quilty projects, too, I decided to start another page for an at-a-glance look at some of those. Hence the new "My Other Crafts" Page (in the tabs just below the blog header).

Lots of pictures are there already, and I'll try to update it as time allows. If it's a picture of something I've blogged about, I'll try to include a blog link with the picture.

Thankfulness, and a Quilt

On Thanksgiving Day in November, I posted the following picture. Because it was appropriate to the holiday, and because it said what I wanted to say, I posted it without making it into one of my usual wordy blog posts.

But, there's a story behind the picture, and I'd like to share it. 

I've had these great fabrics around for a while - some purchased new, and some from my collection of fabric-from-thrift-store-shirts. 

On the Monday before Thanksgiving Day, I found out what these fabrics were for. 

A very dear friend of mine had a heart attack that week. Right away, I was struck by the need to do something. We couldn't visit right then - she was in intensive care. She and her family were being well-taken-care-of, and there wasn't much I could do, except pray. But I wanted to somehow put hopes for a quick recovery into something tangible. I wanted to "put feet to my prayers", if you will.  

Making a quilt seemed to be the thing to do. As I was looking for some cheery fabric to sew with, I remembered the yellow-gold remnant I had bought recently ... 

... with all sorts of "thankful" phrases on it. This was just the thing, since it was Thanksgiving week. And it was just right, since I was thankful that my friend survived a very dangerous heart attack. Thankful that her family still has her around. Thankful that God is good, even though I couldn't predict what the week would hold for her, or for her heart's health.

And, even though this fabric was just right to make a quilt, I wanted the quilt to have a more complete message. Hence the letters! The "who" and the "why" of our thankfulness comes out in the verse I included in the quilt:

Did you know that these exact words show up in at least 6 separate verses in the Bible? (That's why there's no verse-reference to accompany the verse.) I'm thinkin' God thought it was super-important for us to remember this, since He put it in there so many times. We give thanks to the Lord, and we give thanks because He is good.

As I worked on this quilt, the word "for" struck me: "O give thanks unto the Lord; for ..." 

... For what? Why do I give thanks? And, do I give thanks only for the good things? The things I like? Would I, and could I, continue to be thankful, even if my friend didn't make it home from the hospital? I know well that things don't always turn out the way we'd choose. Making this quilt was a great reminder to me: I give thanks to the Lord - because He is good. 

Yes, we give thanks to God for our family and our friends and our health and our "stuff". But, bottom line, even without that, we give thanks because He is good.

I'm happy to report that my friend was home in time to share Thanksgiving dinner with her family, and she's getting good reports from her doctors.

And I'm also glad for God's gentle reminder that there's more to gratefulness than just a generic "thankful" feeling. There's more to being thankful than just telling God, "Thanks for the stuff!" There's a deeper reason to be thankful: the character of God. God is good.

The picture above is the backing of the quilt, and the picture below shows a view of the free-motion quilting, from the front.

I turned the backing around to the front for the binding. I love the stripes and the fall colors, and even though I almost never sew with this much yellow, it works in this quilt.

The quilt turned out to be a nice couch-size quilt ... 

What are you thankful for today? I'm thankful, because God is good. I'm thankful that Jesus saved me from my sins, so that I can know this good God. I'm thankful for friends and family and health and an abundance of blessings that I don't deserve.

O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good ...

I finished this quilt just a few days after I started it, which is a rare thing. But I'm just now blogging about it, because I wanted to take the time to tell this quilt's story, when blogging about it, since it's not just-another-quilt-finish.

I'll be linking this post to this week's Finish It Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilt's blog.

Little by Little on the Shirt Quilt Top

I've had a little Shirt Quilt Top in progress for a while now. Every now and then, I get it out and add a little to it ... 

Here's where it was, just nine-patches and sorta-snowball blocks:

And, today, it looks like the picture below ... I added a scrappy-rectangle border, and a narrow solid border ...

I'm trying to make this whole quilt top out of shirt fabric, resisting the urge to throw in some other handy fabric I have around ... I just think the whole shirt-quilt idea is neat.

This quilt top is still pretty small - thirty-something inches by forty-something, and I want it bigger ... so, I've decided to add a bunch of really cool borders.

Next up: triangles -

I sewed a bunch of these, and pressed them, and trimmed, and trimmed, and trimmed - to make the hundred or so triangle units square!

And I'm still in the process of sewing them together ...

The idea is to put the triangle border all the way around ... so here are a few triangle border bits laid along the top, just to get the idea ...

So far, so good ...