Tee shirt Quilt

I made this quilt before Christmas for a customer. 

It was a whole lot of orange. 

They are Philly Flyers fans. 

Not just regular fans... like super duper HUGE fans. 

This quilt was a gift to their son for Christmas. 

It was going to be a twin, 

but when she dropped of the tee shirts to me

she had a story about almost every single one.

So when I went to make it 

I felt I had to include all the shirts that she had 

special memories of. 

anyway, I was a little hesitant to make this quilt.

1. because I have never made a tee shirt quilt before. 

2. It was a  ton of orange. 

3. I had never made one of these before..(oh did I mention that)

I ended up Loving the process of this quilt. 

and let me tell you it was a process. 

it first began with cutting all the shirts apart. I think there were some 50 to 60 shirts. 

then I ironed a very very light weight fusible web to each. 

then I cut out all the shirts with special  rulers I had made. 

I took a list of sizes i wanted down to the local hardware store and 

he cut them out of plexiglass for me. 

that was about $30 for 10 rulers. 

not bad considering what you spend on 1 ruler... 

anyway. 

If you do ever make a quilt like this, I strongly suggest backing each shirt and the cutting it 

out. If you do not it will be awful to sew,

It will not be straight. No matter what you do, it will not be straight unless you take the step

to iron on the back. 

this process of ironing and cutting took me 2 full days. 

I am talking 8 hours a day people. 

 

then came the job of laying it out. 

It turned out to be a tiny bit smaller then a queen size.

It was HUGE. (did I say that) 

It actually sewed up very quickly because they were such large blocks. 

I did row by row and then sewed them all together. 

I used a light cotton batting in between. 

I recommend a light weight batting 

because this quilt is extremely heavy.

I toyed with the idea of free motion quilting this, 

but I am very glad my Mom talked me out of that. 

I ended up hand tying it with pearl cotton. 

I backed it with  Kona White and added a panel 

of the extra shirts I had. 

I bound it in black. 

 I thought it probably needed a label. 

So this is what I came up with. 

 I loved making this quilt. I am finding such joy in making quilts for people. 

Especially when there are stories that go along with them. 

My customer was overcome

she was speechless when she saw it. 

I almost had her in tears... 

Her son Loved it when he opened it on Christmas day.

that made me smile. 

I need to make a quilt like this for my kids. 

and my friend PAUL. 

(he has more tee shirts then anyone I know)

Christmas past...

    Feb? How can it be February. Is it me or do the years just seem to be flying right on by??

Well since I took a few moths off from Blog land I guess there is no better time to post some Shots of Christmas. Jen, if your reading this hopefully you still love me and know that Christmas in February is not the norm and  I hope you and your daughter will forgive me on getting your gifts off so late.... YIKES.

                         Without further ado my lovely girls. (okay they are not just mine) 

OUR lovely girls. 

We always cute our tree down. 

It was my year to pick the tree. 

Yay me. 

 

We went to a new tree farm this year and it had a fancy

wagon to pull the tree back on. 

Madelyne insisted on pulling. 

Here they are. 

getting too big. 

Sara always the goof ball. 

and our very good friend has connections with Santa. 

He Swooped Maddie up and she got to meet Santa. 

(anyone who knows this child knows she is not a fan of anyone swooping her up) 

There was a look of sheer terror and horror and panic all at the same time. 

Brian didn't give her a second to even consider not going up on the fire truck to meet Santa. 

This picture best shows the look I was speaking of earlier.... 

and I got all choked up and started to cry.... 

I am an emotional sensitive hot mess. 

The look on Brian's face was priceless, you see he was so 

thrilled to share this experience with Maddie. 

it was an awesome memory. 

and Santa got to ride on the vintage fire truck.... 

maddie kept asking where the reindeer were..... 

and one from Christmas morning.... 

Santa brought Sara the NINJA. 

seriously, this kid has been asking for this blender for years... 

what 13 year old would be this thrilled to get a blender for Christmas... 

Sara. That's who. 

things i am loving (just in case you were wondering)

things i am loving

(in no particular order)

I am in LOVE with the Pandora station THE CIVIL WARS. 

it is well, a little bit of amazing. 

yup. 

Little folk, little blue grass, a little country. 

a little Loveliness. 

My daughter. 

I am just LOVING my girl. 

Praying for God to Change my heart. 

so that I can just LOVE her with all my heart and soul. 

I am loving my photography business. 

I am feeling extremely blessed to be able to capture these

newborns. 

Seriously, how blessed am I to be able to take

photographs of these beautiful creations. 

I am LOVING these lovely ladies.

Oh how I long for a yard full of Chickens. 

Fresh eggs. 

Henny Penny. Curly Shirley. Ophelia. 

See we already have them named. 

maybe one day.  

one can hope. 

I am LOVING this man. 

I am in LOVE with this man. 

I can't even begin to tell you what he does for his family. 

He works a million jobs to provide for us. 

(okay well maybe not a million but 4) 

He is my MAN. 

A blessing to me. Sent right from God. 

I love you. 

He puts up with me sewing all day long. 

not cooking dinner. 

not cleaning the house. 

(did I mention sewing all day)

spending to much on fabric. 

and he still loves me. 

How'd I get to be so blessed, people? 

How come I don't realize it more? 

Well I am loving lots more... 

but don't want to bore anyone. 

oh and how can I even tell you just How much 

I am LOVING 

Downton Abbey 

it is maybe the most beautiful, incredibly well written show

I have ever watched. 

If you have Netflix go and watch, they have season one

Then you will be hooked and will have to go and 

purchase season 2 on itunes.... 

and then you can start watching season 3 on Sunday nights because

it is just that amazing. 

like I can't get over all the beautiful 

eye candy. 

IT IS LOVELY. 

anyway that's it. 

the end.  

Bee

                                I have been a busy little bee... A quilting Bee that is.

This was a commissioned baby quilt. 

Gender neutral and not very much direction except no pink or blue. 

Do you realize how hard it is to work with no direction.

hmm I feel some sort of metaphor coming on...

So every time I sit down to quilt or piece or sew I 

Have God thoughts. 

(anyone else have this) 

I am constantly reminded in my precious sewing moments how 

God works in my life.

This quilt was you, Can Not Work Without Direction. 

God wants us to have a direction. 

Some path to follow. 

and when we are following that path that He has laid out

Life goes well, Not always easy, but well. 

When we stray and leave the path 

not so good. 

Well I am speaking from my own experience. 

I can not speak for anyone else. 

These are the things I think about while sewing. 

See God even uses those creative times to speak to us. 

anyway back to the quilt. 

I had about 2 weeks to start and complete this quilt. 

I struggled with what to make. 

I choose this vintagey 9 patch set on point. 

with a very scrappy binding. 

I choose some of my favorite 30 and 40's repros. 

and mixed them with some solids.

I set everything in Kona Snow 

I actually LOVE the brown with all those 

colors. 

Bless my husband for quick holding this up for me as he was running out the door for work and I needed to take a photo of it before it left me to go to the owner. 

A happy Gender Neutral baby quilt I think. 

I quilted  it very simply just around the 9 patches. 

I desperately wanted to wash it before giving it to my customer.

I just LOVE the way quilts looked washed up. 

they crinkle and get soft.

They look nothing like they do after you first make them. 

I resisted the urge to wash and just packaged it up and 

sent it out the door. 

Oh the back... 

If you know me, I LOVE LOVE LOVE 

quilt backs.

In act sometimes I love the simplicity of my backs more then the fronts. 

I think it may have to due with the Improvisational Patchwork. 

I am working on my traditional quilting skills because I think they are important

but to me is Joy in the Improv. 

That is another post.... 

 I do have another  Quilt  I made before Christmas for the 

same customer  it was a Queen Size Tshirt 

It came out Awesome if I do say so myself. 

I will have to post pics of that. 

by the way if anyone had told me 5 years ago that  I would be

making and selling quilts and blogging about them... 

I would have told you that was an insanely funny concept and that would never in  a billion years happen to me. 

HAHA. I love LOVE LOVE

when God gives us cool twist and changes and Surprises us 

with things we never thought we were capable of doing. 

behind

man, i am behind. 

I guess life just happened and poor ol' blog suffered. 

I realized today as I was looking at my photos that I am literally months

behind in photos..... 

YIKES. 

My husband and I took a trip to Lancaster for our anniversary in November. 

and here are some of the photos.... 

I love Lancaster. It is sooo lovely. 

Hope you enjoy this brief look 

at it. Can you tell I have a thing for fields and barns.... 

I must have 1000's of photos of barns and farms and fields... and cows and sheep. 

perhaps a book one day? that would be awesome. 

anyway, here is hoping someone is still reading this little blog o mine... 

have a wonderful day. 

I am nursing 2 kids with the ((FLU)) 

boo for the flu. 

Merry christmas

Merry Christmas. 

Pain

I am going thru stop difficult crap in my life right now. 

I want to write this because its what my blog is about. 

my life. 

I thought about writing it and then I sat down to write it and then I wrote some fluffy Christmas Greeting instead. 

20 Years ago at Christmas time I had a secret. 

A secret that Only one other person and God knew about. 

Secrets are not good. They tear at your being. 

But the only thing about that secret is that I had hope. 

As bad as my situation seemed at the time, 

I  still had hope. 

I sit here 20 years later, at the same time of the year 

with burdens on my shoulder that I can not 

get rid of. 

Burdens of Concern. 

Burdens of unanswered prayer. 

Burdens for my daughter.

I am looking for wisdom. 

I was told by someone that I greatly respect 

that You need to Love your children, 

Even through their mistakes. 

Let them know that you still love them even when they are doing the wrong thing. 

Even when You know they are making bad calls. 

This is hard. 

I think Of my own parents 20 years ago. 

Finding out that they had a 18 year old daughter who was 

pregnant. They were upset, disappointed but yet they still loved me. 

How hard that must have been for them. 

How difficult that situation was for my entire family. 

I was a selfish girl, I made decisions based on no one else but myself. 

I didn't look down the road at all and the choices I was making would impact

not only myself but everyone around me. 

I think OF God, my Heavenly Father, 20 years ago. 

of How I had disappointed Him with the choices I had made. 

But yet, He still Loved me. 

I want God to fix this. 

I want Him to remove the scales from my daughters eyes. 

I want him to soften her heart. 

but she is going to make mistakes. 

she is going to.  

but I still need to LOVE her. 

I need to have hope. 

I need to rest assure that My God has a plan for my daughter. 

He knows the path that she will follow. 

It certainly isn't the path that I would put her on. 

but it's the path that will form her and make her into who she is 

to become. 

I love her. 

I think about a tiny baby 20 years ago 

being knit together in my womb. 

A baby that God had planned. 

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Psalm 139:13-16

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

and one more. 

Proverbs 3: 5-6

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,    and he will make your paths straight.^[a]

^{Thanks for listening to me. I needed that.}