Cotton T-shirts: Recycled into really cool stuff!

Welcome to 2014!

I've been busy with all sorts of quilty (and not-so-quilty) things!

Here's one of the projects I've been working on. 

 



 



Actually, this is three projects. Kind of. 

 





 

For several months, I've had an entire box of cotton T-shirts (that I bought at the thrift store), to turn into T-shirt yarn. In my ongoing quest to use the stuff in my craft-storage-spaces, last week, I got out the box of t-shirts and started cutting.

 

Since I'm not in the mood to crochet/knit/weave this T-shirt yarn right now, I thought I'd see if somebody else wants to buy it ... so this nice lot of 16 skeins of bulky T-shirt yarn (over 400 yards total) is listed on eBay for a little while.

 



I don't know if anybody else has this dilemma, but I've always wondered what in the world to do with "the rest of the T-shirt" after cutting yarn out of the tube-shaped body of the t-shirt. You know ... the sleeves and the "yoke" area of the shirt. Cutting it into short strips just seems to make a mess, and I'm not sure what to do with little foot-long bits of T-shirt yarn.

 

New plan: Cut all that "excess" into squares. Quilt Squares. 6-and-a-half-inch squares. And 4-and-a-half-inch squares. (Because that's what sizes my square rulers are!) 

 

These stacks of squares are becoming really soft quilts. Fleece-backed T-shirt quilts. I like them already. I'm making this one with the 6.5" squares. (I still have a big stack of 4.5" squares, and plenty more fleece ... fun!)

Inspiration for this layout came from this quilt I saw on Pinterest. (See other quilt ideas, quilting technique ideas, and my own projects on my Pinterest profile.)

 

So, since I had a nice rainbow thing going with those yarns and those squares, the 3 black T-shirts I cut into yarn didn't seem to fit in with the others. So, I decided to make a little doily-style doormat with the black T-shirt yarn and some leftover blue jersey-sheet-yarn I had leftover. 

 

 

Anyway ... Three projects (and counting) from my box of T-shirts:

 

400+ yards of rainbow-colored T-Shirt yarn ... 

 



 

The super-cozy Fleece-and-T-shirt quilt throw quilt that I'm quilting in variegated thread (probably destined for eBay...)

 



And, the very handy, very washable, very absorbent little rug that looks great in front of the door, and helps out on these wet/muddy winter days.

 

 

Before long, I'll be blogging about some of the quilts I've worked on but haven't blogged about yet ... a couple of Christmassy things I couldn't blog about sooner; a couple of long-time (vintage-y!) finishes I've had the privilege of helping with; a couple of other quilts I didn't get around to blogging earlier. Stay tuned!

Another Shirt Quilt Project FMQ-QAYG-style

I've been working on another Free-Motion-Quilted, Quilt-As-You-Go sampler project, made of shirt fabrics. With a bunch of 10½" squares that I already had cut out of cotton shirt fabric, and some batting scraps (edges trimmed when quilting medium-sized quilts) I've been learning some new techniques.

This project is similar to that other one that's still a work in progress.

Below are pictures of some of my latest experiments. Actually, I turned this into a fun little quilt that I'll probably be blogging about soon.

With each picture, the caption-explanation includes where I got the inspiration and/or instructions.

Many of the designs came from Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project blog, so many of the picture-captions have links there.

Several of the designs below have Pinterest links, because I've started gathering up FMQ ideas on my latest Pinterest Board, called "Quilting Techniques". Click here to see the board and you'll have the option to Follow the board if you'd like.

Bubble Path. This one was fun, and not hard. Leah Day's instructions are here.

Checkerboard, from The Free Motion Quilting Project (Leah Day's blog).

I'm calling this a decorated crosshatch.
Inspired by Cindy Needham's work here and here.

This is a funny little design. It reminds me of dinosaurs or dragon heads.
I was inspired by the idea of a floral stipple (a Jo's Country Junction favorite),
but I wanted to steer away from flowery, and try zig-zaggy. I like the result.

Lately, I accidentally see quilting patterns in all sorts of things.
This design was actually inspired by the design on a tissue box.
(See below.)
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. :-)

This is a neat concept, but needs some work.
It's another tissue-box inspiration (see below). Weird, I know.
But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only quilter who sees quilt patterns everywhere. :-)

This was an experiment ... not too bad. Inspired by this quilter's work.

My first attempt at "McTavishing". Still working on this concept.
Instructions/inspiration from Leah Day and from Pinterest.

Puzzle Quilting! I mentioned this one before; inspiration from here.

This is my rendition of "Sea Oats", seen here at Leah Day's Blog

Here's my version of Spiral Chain; again, the how-to is at Leah Day's blog

Free-motion loops-and-stars ... I saw an FMQ style like this on
a beautiful batik quilt that was displayed for several weeks at my local library;
a local quilt guild had donated it for a library raffle. 

Super Star. Fun stuff. Leah Day's instructions are in this blog post.

Wiggly Woven Lines. I like how this one turned out.
It's another one of Leah Day's designs.

Zen Breaks. I need some more practice on this one ...
Again, Leah Day shares instructions on her Free Motion Quilting blog.

Friday Update:

I'm linking this post to this week's FMQ Friday at The Free Motion Quilting Project blog ... and looking forward to getting some more free-motion-quilting inspiration there!

Finished Kaleidoscope Hexagons ... With a Purpose!

I got my latest (grape and leaf) Hexagon Kaleidoscopes finished into a quilt top AND basted with its quilt-layers last week.

And only just in time! (More on that later...)

 

 

 

This week, I quilted it quilt last-minute ... Free-motion quilting all over, with some loops in the border ...

 

 

  

It's a throw-sized quilt, 50" x 60", so it's the perfect size for a couch-quilt for chilly winter days.

I'm really excited to have this one finished and quilted and bound.

Because this quilt has a really cool job that none of my other quilts has had.

 

This quilt gets to be part of an upcoming fundraiser for two friends' international adoptions that are in progress!

 

My friend Christy & her family AND my friend Katie & her family are both adopting little boys from Eastern Europe. These two families are doing a joint fundraiser (that includes a silent auction) this weekend, to help with their adoption costs.

 

This quilt gets to be part of that silent auction in a few days! I'm hoping that somebody who attends the fundraising event will really love this quilt, so it can raise some money for little Auggie and little Royce.

 

Did you know that according to Reece's Rainbow, a typical international adoption can cost $25,000? I had no idea. It's a staggering sum of money. Of course, if it's your child on the other side of the globe, it's worth whatever it takes to bring that little one home. But getting that money together, in order to make that adoption possible, takes some doing. 

 

This weekend's fundraiser is part of an ongoing effort to finish raising the needed money to get these little boys home ... And the sooner the better - both of the boys have medical issues that will need to be addressed as soon as possible.

 

 



Both Christy's family and Katie's family have been blessed with kids who were adopted locally, as well as biological kids. Both of their families are looking forward to bringing home their little guys from Eastern Europe as soon as possible.

 

Both families have donation pages on the Reece's Rainbow adoption-grant site:

Augustin for Christy's family

Royce for Katie's family

 

 

I'm honored to have a small part in helping these families bring home their newest blessings from God. These friends are making a difference in the lives of their children, and they're also making a difference in the lives of their friends. And their friends appreciate that. :-)

 

 

When Friday comes, I'll be linking this post to this week's Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, and this week's Free Motion Friday at The Free Motion Quilting Project.

Very Tiny English Paper Piecing (that will someday be a wall-hanging)

So, ever since summertime (when I had the motivation of Monday Morning Star Counts), I haven't worked on my Very Tiny English Paper Piecing. Until a couple of weeks ago. I guess I got re-inspired. For one thing, I really want to make this into a framed wall-hanging. For another thing, I noticed that at least one blogger has kept up the Monday Morning Star Counts tradition that Jessica started. (And why not, even without the central spot to link posts like this? Thanks for the inspiration, Pamela!) And also - it's such a satisfying thing to make some progress while sitting and relaxing.

I got out the tiny EPP, and worked on it (with my Christmas Hexagon Quilt on my lap!

As it turns out, the kitty liked the Christmas Quilt idea, too, so she sat on part of the quilt near my feet.

I got busy and made a bunch of tiny hexagons, and put a whole row of white hexagons along one side of the soon-to-be wall-hanging. (All those white ones on the right-hand-side of the picture above are new.)

These are very tiny, as you may recall. Last time I posted about this one was this blog post. I think the first time I blogged about this particular tiny hexagon project was here, although I've posted about other tiny hexagon projects in the past (such as here and here).

 Anyhoo, I've got a little progress happening here and there, and that's been nice.

Since I like the chance to share and see quilty progress on quilty blogs, I'm linking this post to this week's Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Grape and Leaf Kaleidoscopes

Way back earlier this year, I mentioned starting some new kaleidoscope quilt blocks. (These are in addition to the ones I mentioned last week. Same process. Different fabric.)

These ones look fall-ish, and grape-and-leaf-ish, and I like them! I've pieced all (or most?) of the dozens I cut out. So, now, I've been adding background pieces (beige-y brown), and next up will be sewing them into rows, and adding sashing to the rows, then adding borders. Again, same process as those floral kaleidoscopes from last week.

So, I'm thinking that my dozens of grape-and-leaf kaleidoscopes will turn into a couple of nice throw quilts. Eventually. When I get around to finishing them. (Is it any wonder that the fabric-cutting lady at Wal-Mart raised her eyebrows when I mentioned how impossible it would be for me to ONLY work on ONE project at a time, and/or have ALL my projects finished? She has no idea ... I should mention my blog to her ... Hahaha!)

Baby Girly Quilt ~ with letters, squares, and a bit of custom quilting

Here's a little quilt I recently finished for my newest niece ... 

I mentioned starting a few little quilts in this post last month. This is one of those.

After piecing the front of the quilt, and picking a fabric for the back, I also added some letters to personalize the quilt.

I quilted the middle and the edges with a basic, meandering free-motion design, which is my all-time favorite.

Since I was free-motion-quilting, I decided to try a little something different in the little colored-square border. 

Free-Motion-Quilted flowers and leaves in the squares. I haven't tried this before, but I think it went pretty well for a first try.

(See my Machingers gloves in the picture below? Love them. I may have mentioned that set of quilting tools I got on sale from Leah Day's online store. Really makes quilting easier - especially easier on my hands! Not pictured: the teflon "slider" that's between the quilt and the sewing machine - it makes moving the quilt while quilting SO much easier.)

So, yeah. I like the little custom leaves-and-flowers detail.

For the back, I picked a nifty little waffle-weave fabric I've had in my stash. The colors were great, and the size was perfect.

The flowers and leaves even look good from the back! (If I do say so myself ...)

Cute little baby quilt. For a really cute little baby.

I'm linking this post to this week's Free Motion Friday at Leah Day's blog. It's always neat to get some inspiration and information from the other quilters who post about their latest projects there.