Dress Shirt Quilt

So, I've been wanting to make this post for a long long time, but I thought I "lost" the photographs on my computer. In an effort to be more organized with my digital pictures, I started putting all my quilt photos in a folder called "Quilts." (Clever, I know!) But then I forgot I had started doing that so I was searching and searching around by date, trying to find these particular shots. Finally, they resurfaced!!

When my parents were cleaning out my grandmother's house, they found a quilt top. My mom had no idea the story behind it, but she kept it to give to me. My grandmother always told us stories about important things in her house ("This vase was a wedding present." "This silver spoon belonged to your great-grandmother.") so I was shocked that we had never heard a word of this quilt, even though I had been a quilter for years, and my grandmother used to brag to her friends about her quilting granddaughter! Anyway, the quilt top was very cool because it was made out of what appears to be men's dress shirts! So I wonder, was this quilt made of my grandfather's dress shirts? Or had it belonged to one of my great aunts? Or did my grandmother pick it up at a yard sale? (All plausible theories)

This was the "easiest" quilt I've done because the hard part (which is also the fun part) -- cutting and sewing the fabric for the top -- was already done. All I had to do was get binding and a backing and put it together. I decided not to put on any borders because there was no way I would be able to find fabrics similar to these old dress shirts. Plus, the quilt was already queen-sized, without borders, so I didn't want to make it any bigger (I only have a limited amount of space on my living floor to spread out my work!). Here it is being displayed on my bed. Because it looks so good on my bed, I didn't want to give it away, but I had planned from the start to give it to my brother!

I made this quilt for my good friend for her 29th + 1 birthday. When I make quilts, I always have colors in mind, colors that remind me of the person, either because of what they wear or how they have their home decorated. This fabric was fun. I bought just a small amount on E-Bay, coordinating cat fabric with cream and maroon backgrounds. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a solid background color that was the same shade of maroon (silly dye lots!) so somehow, I was able to contact the seller who I bought the fabric from last year and ask the name of it. And even more remarkably I found it on the internet. I ordered 6 yards, and they shipped from England. The quilt came out great!

Holidays, continued

So though today isn't a national holiday, I think it should be. Es mi cumple. :-) Therefore, I am going to write about an actual national holiday -- Christmas! My first year in the apartment with my roommates, I made a crazy quilt tree skirt as well as stockings:

(Whoops! We hadn't decorated the tree before it crashed into the TV... luckily, there was no damage!)

After I moved to my own place, I continued my Christmas decorating with a quilt (mentioned in the previous post) as well as a Log Cabin pillow:

Merry Christmas in June, everyone!

Holidays -- thanks to E-bay

So a while back, I discovered the most amazing thing. On E-Bay you can buy pre-cut squares of coordinating fabric (the sellers usually sell pre-cut blocks of fabric in sets -- usually 4 different fabrics, ten blocks of each for a total of 40 blocks). It's a great deal -- someone makes money by doing the hard part of rotary cutting block after block of fabric. After discovering this on E-Bay, I bought a set of Irish fabrics, in green and white, and decided to make a St. Patrick's Day quilt. The plan was to use it only during the month of March, but I have loved it so much I use it all the time when I wrap up on the couch. Because all the squares were pre-cut, I couldn't do strip piecing, so it did take a little bit of time (and a lot of thread) to sew the top together. I had 4" squares of green fabric and 4" squares of white fabric so I alternated the colors, not paying mind to what the actual pattern was on the fabric, as long as the background color alternated green and white. All the fabrics had some sort of Irish theme. I had been taught in my quilting classes to use a solid color for the backing, but I had found the cutest, softest leprachaun fabric that I couldn't resist for the back!!

After the success of the St. Patrick's Day quilt, I decided to try my hand at a Christmas quilt. I used the same concept -- this time alternating red, white and green squares. I did have a lot of Christmas fabric from pervious projects but I still bought a bunch of precut squares from E-Bay. I also raided my mother's fabric stash! In fact, the candy cane border, which you can see to the right, is left over fabric from the school play in second grade! Thanks, Mom!! The quilt top came out great, but I didn't want to just do a plain red or green backing. So I splurged and bought novelty fabric for the back. I just couldn't resist these adorable Christmas kitties.

Bright colors!

Okay, so I am killing time before I head to the Nationals baseball game, so I figured I had time for one post. In this post, you will see the Carpenters Square pattern:(http://www.quilterscache.com/C/CarpentersSquareBlock.htmlww.quilterscache.com/C/CarpentersSquareBlock.htmlww.quilterscache.com/C/CarpentersSquareBlock.html). The Quilter's Cache rates this pattern 3 pins (like stars) in terms of difficulty so there is a reason this quilt only had nine blocks! My friend Jamie, a fellow quilter, sent me the most beautiful collection of fat quarters for my birthday so I decided to practice this difficult pattern with them. I had originally thought I could make purses from the squares since they are 11" squares, which is perfect for small purses, but I liked how they turned out so much, I made a small quilt for myself and decided to completely redecorate my bedroom so I could use it, even though the quilt itself can't be more than 36X36. The Carpenter's Square is very time consuming because you can't easily do strip piecing. Each piece has to be sewn individually. The majority of my time making this quilt was cutting the fabric to the various sizes (2" square, 2" X 4" strips, 2" X 6" strips, etc) But the final results are great. I put together this quilt over Christmas, while I was home at my parents. You'd be surprised to know that their cats, Boots & Bella, were excellent assistants. Bella (ironically, since she's the shy one) enjoyed getting in between the top and the batting when I was tying the quilt!

Here it is finally finished. Don't I look proud?!?! (and maybe a bit relieved!)

So I have never really had a great bedspread for my brass bed, and I had been using an old comforter of my grandmother's with pastel flowers, but I wanted to incorporate this bright floral quilt into my bedding scheme. So, I went out and bought a white duvet cover and filled it with batting (I thought an actual feather comforter would be too hot) and I bought other new bright colored accessories. I'm not sure if I love the results, but it's starting to grow on me:

Purses

Upon the advice of my quilting teacher, I purchased a book on the Log Cabin quilt pattern (Make a Quilt in a Day: Log Cabin Pattern by Eleanor Burns). Though I am yet to make an entire Log Cabin Quilt, I have used the pattern in numerous projects such as pillows and purses. Here are some of the purses I've made over the years. It's great to be able to make your own purses because when I wanted a brown purse, I didn't have to run around to a bunch of stores looking for one. I just made one, exactly to my own specifications! Purses also make great gifts. However, I have a bad bad habit of giving them away before I photograph them! I know I've made at least one tote bag, two purple purses, one green purse and two multi-colored purses for friends & family members. Someday I would like to be able to sell my purses on e-Bay or at a craft fair. :-)

I also made tote bags for my flute choir members and myself. We used to play at a number of nursing homes at Christmas and at other events throughout the year. The tote bag (the pattern is in the log cabin book mentioned above) is the perfect size to fit music, the flute and a stand. It also makes a great carryon for the plane!

The Lone Star!!

Thanks to J & Z, here it is, the most difficult quilt I've made :-)