More Jeans & T-Shirts ...

I'm quilting again ... It's a Jeans-and-Shirt Quilt this time. More details later, when I have more pictures, and a bit more time to blog.

Knitting again ...

So, several weeks ago, I finished that pair of socks that I was knitting for a year or so ... And, of course, I love them!

Therefore, it made perfect sense to start another pair!

I enjoy the fact that this sort of project is very portable!

I'm working on a Jeans Quilt

This one has been a lot of fun already! I'm hoping to have more pictures soon. But for now, here's my inspiration ... This Pin, a picture of somebody else's jeans quilt. I LOVE the style! Turns out, my rendition of this quilt requires somewhere past 700 of those little colored squares! That's s good thing, though: I'm finally starting to make a dent in my big box of shirt-plaids!

Recently made

I recently finished this baby quilt for a friend ... It's made of T-shirts, so it's super-soft. More pictures soon ... I'm testing out this post-from-phone thing.

A Little Knitting

I'm finally getting back to finishing this pair of socks ...

Seen at my local Thrift Store

I thought this was neat. Not neat enough to pay money for (since I've always got that that feeling of "Oh, I could make that so easily!"), but interesting nevertheless. 

It's a pillow, embellished with T-Shirt Yarn. What a great idea! Simple concept; striking result.

Nifty, and so simple to construct ... there's a line of stitching holding the T-Shirt Yarn embellishments in place. I like it.

So, I didn't make this, and didn't buy it, but wanted some pics for future reference ... I may try this idea sometime!

Another Progress Milestone

I recently arrived at another patchwork milestone ... 

All the "melon" pieces for my Double Wedding Ring Quilt are assembled.

My layout says I need 84 of these "melons" ... each one is made from two batik arches and two batik squares, and one navy-blue center piece.

So, it's been a lot of piecing ... I started this project about a year ago (see the first post about it here), and it has involved a lot of bits and pieces (see another post here).

I LOVE this fabric! The colors are great, and I think the bright colors look great against the navy blue.

So, now, the thing to do is to start assembling rows ... I'm excited about the progress!

A Blue T-Shirt Baby Quilt

Here's a just-finished baby quilt ... made from super-soft T-Shirts, and backed with cozy fleece.

Since a friend of mine recently had her fourth child -- and first boy -- I wanted the quilt to be extra boy-ish. So, I went with all-blue, and I wanted even the quilting to be distinctively "boy". 

Free-motion quilting footballs, baseballs, & basketballs all over seemed like the thing to do.

It's sort of a new take on the quilting I did on my older son's NFL Quilt, and the quilting I did on my younger son's T-Shirt Sports Quilt. 

Even though the quilt doesn't technically have borders, I quilted the outside row of squares with wiggly lines, to give a little bit of an "edge" to the quilt.

Even on the fleece, the quilting shows up well on the back of the quilt, which is neat.

I'm told that baby quilts made of T-Shirts are among the softest ones out there, and I'm hoping this one will be used and enjoyed.

I'm always glad when I 'm able to give something tangible to congratulate a friend and welcome a new baby.

Today's a great day to blog a finished quilt, because Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts has a Finish It Up Friday weekly link on her blog. I'll be linking this post there when her link-party is ready.

Leaders and Enders Milestone

This week, I reached a milestone on an ongoing project that I started a few years ago ...

In between, and among, other projects, I've been sewing together blue and white squares and rectangles ... (More pictures in previous posts here and here.) 

The milestone: I've got as many squares as I need!

A long time ago (in this post), I mentioned the inspiration and explanation for my Leaders and Enders project ... here's what I said (way back in 2011):

"A few weeks ago, I came across a neat concept at a blog called Jo's Country Junction ~ Her post about Leaders and Enders caught my eye ... and she linked her post to her inspiration at Quiltville ... fascinating stuff.

"Both of the links above have great, lengthy explanations ... but the short version is, if you sew together a couple of tiny squares, in between each seam of what you're really working on, the tiny squares keep you from having all those long threads at each end of what you're really working on. You sew straight from one piece onto another, then afterward, you snip the tiny thread between ... So, what you're really working on gets sewn, and the little squares you're sewing together for something else also get done."

So, my little hand-drawn chart says I need something like 260 blocks ... and this week, I counted them up, and I've got them!

The next step? Trim them all square, and then they'll be ready to assemble! 

I have no idea what I'll do with this quilt when it's done, but it'll end up being about twin-sized, which is a very versatile size, so I'm happy about that.

T-Shirt Yarn Basket

This was fun ... I made a Yarn Basket for my mom a couple months ago ... out of T-Shirt Yarn!

Evidently, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product before sending it off, but the basket ended up 6 or 8 inches tall, and something like 15 inches across. I was aiming for the idea I saw on Pinterest (see this pin) ... although I sort of made up my own pattern, rather than following that exact pattern.

I love the ease and the speed of crocheting with T-Shirt Yarn! T-Shirt Yarn crochet also makes great rugs (see pictures here, here and here.)

T-Shirt Sports Quilt - Reverse Applique & Quilt-As-You-Go

Recently, I finished this quilt for my youngest son ...

It's made of T-Shirt fabric - because T-Shirt Quilts are so fun ... and I've had fun trying my hand at Fancy T-Shirt-Quilt ideas, and Baby-Quilt T-Shirt Quilt ideas ... I decided to try my hand at the Sports-Quilt/Guy-Quilt variety of T-Shirt Quilt.

I was able to make great use of some of the T-Shirt scraps I had leftover from making T-Shirt Yarn ... and I had lots of fun trying Reverse Applique for the first time.

I also decided to use Quilt-As-You-Go techniques (modified a little), so I could work with just a small square at a time when I did the reverse-applique and the quilting.

All the fabric was cut from actual T-Shirts, except the green "sashing" strips, which were cut from a cotton jersey bed sheet.

The footballs and basketballs are my favorites ... I also included tennis balls and baseballs. And some beach balls and bouncy-balls. I sort of modified the football-quilting idea I used for my older son's NFL Quilt.

I might do a quick photo-tutorial sometime on how the reverse-applique-then-quilting went with the T-Shirt fabric. I love the fact that the T-Shirt fabrics won't fray, which helps a lot with this technique.

The picture below shows the back of the quilt -- also T-Shirt fabrics, so the quilt is super-cozy.

The whole quilt is fifty-something inches by sixty-something, so it's a nice throw-size/couch-size/kid-size quilt.

My little guy loves it, and so do I.

One of the fun things about this quilt is that I did most of the sewing on my new-to-me (Vintage, but nearly new!) Kenmore sewing machine that I got a few weeks ago for $10.00. It's an oldie but a goodie ... in really great shape, and barely (if ever) used. I love the durability and consistency of an older machine, and it's great for free-motion quilting!

I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out.

Since this is a finish (YAY!) I'm linking this post to this week's Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts - It's one of my all-time-favorite quilting blogs, and the weekly links for finishes are always fun and inspirational!

New (Recycled!) things for sale ...

When I discovered T-Shirt Yarn, I was amazed at how nice it is to crochet with it. (See some of my other recycled T-Shirt projects by clicking the "T-Shirt Crafts" label in my blog sidebar.)

Earlier this year, when I had more T-Shirts that I could possibly use for a while, I made a set of T-Shirt Yarns to see if they would sell on eBay.

As it turns out, a lot of crafters seem to like the opportunity to buy already-made T-Shirt Yarn at a reasonable price.

So, when I have time, I've been making T-Shirt Yarn to sell on eBay and in my Etsy shop.

I love the fact that I can pass these along to people who will make beautiful things from them. 

In the same vein, I've done a lot of quilt-making with Jeans and Denim (See "Jeans" or "Denim" in the labels in my blog sidebar.) And since I'm not currently working on any Jeans Quilts, I've listed some pre-cut Jeans squares on eBay as well.

Colored ones, too!

Anytime you want to see my current craft items that are for sale, see the "ProsperityStuff on eBay" and "ProsperityStuff on Etsy" tabs in my blog header. (On the mobile version of this site, click next to the word "Home" for the pages/tabs menu, or click here for my eBay listings and here for my Etsy listings.

Quilt-As-You-Go T-Shirt Dresden Plate

So - this was fun ...

With some leftover T-Shirt fabric, I cut some Dresden Plate shapes ...

So that I could try my hand at a new way to quilt a Dresden Plate quilt block.

Nice thing about T-Shirt jersey cotton? The fact that the edges won't fray, so, no need to finish the outer and inner edges.

So, I got my rainbow of colors cut ...

Sewed the "plates" together ...

... and admired them ...

... amused that my middle daughter (who was also admiring them) happened to have a matching nail-color that day!

I made 5.

I made a couple of extra quarter-"plates", to try out some quilting ideas.

I quilted these practice ones onto some denim & batting. Might turn them into pot-holders, since my kitchen could use a few, and since they're kind of random and messy.

I chose a swirly design, and I was thrilled at how great it looks, but how easy it was!

I had fun quilting these ... onto some black cotton jersey fabric that used to be a Twin-Sized T-Shirt sheet.

When I was trying to figure out how to quilt all this stretchy (knit fabric) stuff together, my oldest daughter suggested that I cut the black background (and the batting) into squares, and quilt the 15-inch squares, instead of trying to quilt a big, stretchy 50-inch square.

I love how the little edges give this a bit of a 3-D effect ... they're not going to fray, and they are securely sewn on, but they're free to curl up a little.

The backs of these Dresdens look pretty neat, too ...

Love these!

So, now I've got 5 blocks with one Dresden Plate each ...

And I also quilted some plain black blocks to go in between ...

On the black, I quilted with variegated thread (of course!)

So, one of these days, I'm going to put all my Quilt-As-You-Go T-Shirt Dresden Plate blocks together into a little quilt ...

Stay tuned for more details, when I get some more finishing work done.