Eight Shirts, Three Quilts

Last fall, I made two memory quilts for a coworker who lost her brother. She gifted those quilts to her mother and her sister-in-law. You can read about those quilts here. As soon as she shipped them off she started wishing she had one of her very own. Luckily, there was just enough shirt fabric to make one so that she would have her very own quilt to keep close.

If you look closely at this quilt, you will know which of the shirts were long sleeve and which were short sleeve. It was a challenge to even get one block out of a couple of these. I am very thankful for long sleeves for this project.

I had to use the pocket front for all but one of these shirts. The pockets could have been left unquilted but she requested them stitched down so a hand or foot would not get caught and tear the quilt. It would be fun to leave them unquilted if this were going to be hung on a wall, You could keep special notes or other memories in the pockets.

The backing is navy flannel just like the other two quilts. The first two quilts each had one of these photos on the back. This one has both! It will be easy to flip up a corner to see the picture. This photograph also shows the scrappy binding. I was not sure there was going to be enough shirt left for a binding, but there was. The binding scraps frame each of the pictures on the back.

All of the pictures are after the quilt was washed. The quilting is a simple meander in an off white thread to match the background fabric. This quilt was delivered earlier today and I could tell she was very happy to receive it.

I couldn't help but take a picture of our back yard bird set up. It's been so active lately, except when I scare them all off taking quilt photos.

Eight shirts, three quilts. So happy to have been a small part of saving these memories.

Easy Baby Quilt With Nature In Mind

 I'm going to a baby shower this weekend for a coworker who is about to be a first time grandmother. When she first told us the news, she added that she had already purchased baby items with a camouflage and a John Deere theme. 

That meant this quilt had to represent the outdoors as best I could.

This almost camo fabric was the inspiration for all the others. At first there were some bolder prints in there but they were too distracting. The subtle prints in browns, greens, and golds did the trick.

Each block includes a 5x8 inch rectangle of color and a 2x8 inch strip of background sewn to each side. The blocks finish at 7 1/2 inches square. Two inch strips of background are an added border. The quilt finishes at 39 inches square.

The quilting is a super easy free motion meander with a light green thread on top and a variegated thread on bottom. The backing is a light green stripe from one of Nancy Halvorsen's collections.

I did not have enough of any one fabric from the center to use for binding so I used two and alternated them to finish off the quilt.

Spring has decided to stop teasing us and hang around for a while. The backyard bird activity has really picked up. It's a great time of year to enjoy the birds and all things outdoors.

Modern Geometric Landscape Quilt Finish

My son has a back to nature sort of room. His bed and night stand were made by his dad from reclaimed wood. He has plants under his windowsill, and collections of shells and rocks displayed from places we have visited. He asked me to make him a landscape quilt to add some color and continue his nature theme.

I expected him to want a small raw edge applique wall hanging, only because that is what I think of first when I think about landscape quilts. Our go to resource for design ideas is Pinterest, and that is where he found this pattern. The pattern is Welcome to Colorful Colorado by Katie Larson. I purchased it when it was available on Craftsy and see that she now has it available in her Etsy shop, The Crafting Shell. I love the design, colors, quilting, and really, everything about the quilt. So I made one as close to hers as I could.

I'm normally a use what you have kind of quilt maker but in this case I invested in the solid fabrics required for the quilt. It is great to add the leftovers to my stash, too. The quilting was a bit challenging in the middle section since I used a close to matching thread for each triangle. I didn't think I would ever finish burying all those threads once the quilting was finished! It was worth it.

The back is made from two yards of text fabric surrounded by solid scraps.

Here's a closer look at the text print.

Rather than bind the quilt, it is faced. This is the first time I have made a facing for a quilt, and I like both the process and the result. I need to work on my mitered corners a little more but other than that, it worked well.

I knew this was going to hang on a wall so I had a little fun with the facing fabric. This is a Charley Harper print. Those owls are so cute. I also tried out a new hand stitch to finish off the facing. I had always used a slip stitch when hand stitching binding but because the facing is so much thinner and flatter than binding, I tried out the ladder stitch. I will definitely use it again. It makes those stitches practically invisible.

Here it is hanging in its new home. It adds so much color to his room. He is happy to have it and I am happy it is finished!