T-shirt quilt for softball player

I just finished another T-shirt quilt for a softball player...

It's funny, I do several of these a year for people (mostly softball players--hmmm, imagine that?) and I end up using the same color for sashing in almost 80% of them.  

Here is my choice of colors:

{Hot Pink}   {Red}   {Royal Blue}   {Bright Yellow}  {Almost Lime Green}

{Pink}  just didn't work for me.  Not enough of it in the quilt?

{Red} might have been okay if it would have been brighter, but that didn't thrill me either.

{Royal Blue} Okay, I admit. My 'go to' color.  It seems to recede into the background without clashing with any of the shirts and allows the T-shirts to come out and shine. 

{Bright Yellow} Got your shades?  Whoa--I'm the first one to admit I love bright, intense colors, but it was trying to take all the glory when it forgets it is all about the T-shirts! Sorry yellow, I really wanted you.

{Almost Lime Green} it was the 'almost' that got me.  It just didn't quite get it with the other lime greens in the quilt. 

So, Royal Blue again makes it's appearance in my T-shirt quilts. It just seems to be the most unassuming choice and allows the shirts to stand out. 

I use a heavy flannel for my sashing and backing. First of all because it is more the weight of the T-shirts and it makes it a nice snuggly quilt.  I use Warm and Natural cotton batting.  I quilt it with a gray thread in a large-ish overall meander.  It's not about the quilting here..it's all about the shirts. 

This young lady had a number of shirts that had designs on the back, including several that had the names of participants. So I just chose a few and added a row on the back. 

I have seen several awesome Tshirt quilts, but this is the most basic one that I teach and also do for hire, as it's the most economical.   I'm working on a tutorial now.  

This is a great shirt...thought I would share it...guess who is a catcher? 

Happy 1st Birthday to my last granddaughter

What a dear little girl she is....and the most beautiful eyes.  And she just takes it all in with a smile with 2 little teeth...Happy Birthday Precious Little One..

Wouldn't it have been nice to have the actual photo instead of taking a photo of a photo?  :)  Getting photos from my daughters is like pulling teeth sometimes!  And they don't even have to go to the camera shop, turn in a negative, order a print and wait a week!  So I do the next best thing..take a picture of a picture!  I should have just taken it off the wall. heehee

Nana is making her some headbands and clips, I can't believe how long her hair is!  Sad to say, it's longer than her sister's, who is 3 1/2 and decided that cutting your hair is fun! But that's another story!

PS..I love that you can Photoshop 'food off face' rather easily! just sayin'....

Portable Ironing Table Tutorial

I have made several of these already and wonder why I didn't do more sooner? 

 They are SO handy to have by your side when you are sewing and it doesn't take away precious space on your sewing table. PLUS, it GIVES you extra space if you need it.

  If I don't necessarily need an iron at my side on a particular day, I put my small cutting mat on it.  Or just to have more space. Period.

This is embarrassingly simple.  It takes about 5 minutes to do. It will take you longer to shop for the supplies than make it.

Portable Ironing Table Tutorial

Supplies needed:

Wooden TV tray (mine came in a set of 4, but I have seen them sold individually as well. I've also seen them at Goodwill--and not thinking, I didn't buy them! Slap on head!)

Electric Staple Gun with staples (or you can use a non-electric staple gun as well--just don't bother with a regular office type stapler, it just won't work!)

1/2 yard of Insulated Teflon cloth (ironing board cloth that is already layered with thick batting and a lining)  I found mine at the larger JoAnn's ETC stores. If you don't have one nearby, you can order it online or use regular Teflon silver cloth and a few layers of Warm and Natural.

Are you ready?

1. Cut your Teflon cloth about 2.5 to 3" larger on all sides of your wooden TV table.

2. Starting on one side, with the table upside on the wrong side of the cloth, wrap the Teflon cloth around the tray and staple. Staple the entire side. Don't be stingy with the staples. They're cheap.

3. Go to the opposite side of the table and staple that side down.

4. Repeat with the 3rd and 4th sides, leaving the corners for last.

5. Corners: the insulated Teflon cloth is really thick.  I just grabbed the corner that was left standing up and pulled it up tight and stapled. It kind of made it's own pleat. I just made sure that I put more than one staple in the corners.

6. Turn over and enjoy!

Now, wasn't that easy?

Working on projects

Wow--time gets away so fast anymore.  I used to just chuckle at older people who used to say that and now here I am, saying the very same thing. Does that mean I'm getting old? 

 Must be.

Now that things are looking to slow down, just a tiny bit, I have been itching to get back into my sewing room and getting things done!  I really wanted to cut into some new fabric I bought, but thought I better finish up some older projects. If anything, to assuage my guilt!

I pulled out my Be Attitudes project

that I started oh, in 2009?  this is one of the blocks I got done...

New features in Blogger

I'm just testing a few of the new features Blogger has introduced in the past few months and am excited about another new feature coming down the pike. Want a sneak preview?

Hint....

Mug Rug Mania

How 'bout those mug rugs?  It took me a while, but I finally got a few done and I can see how they can be addicting. But let me tell ya, they do NOT use up any scraps!  It made barely a scratch in the pile.  Guess I could be making these until the cows came home and still wouldn't use up piles of scraps. 

 Here's what I've done so far..

The table runner that never was....I figured I could make a lot of mug rugs from these fussy cut cardinals.

This is my first foray into the selvage world...I've been collecting them ever since I saw what Karen from Selvage Quilts was doing with hers!  Taking baby steps here... now there is nothing that gets thrown in the trash...evah!  It's a sickness I do believe.  

I made another one, but forgot to take a photo. I had a PJ party and we made these and forgot to take those pictures as well.  I'm either hot in taking photos or not. Seems to be no happy medium.  I'm thinking great little gifts, for no reason!

If you are looking for a basic tutorial, Terri at Sew-Fantastic has a great tutorial....and great mug rug. Man, the possibilities are endless.   Look for links to the Flickr pool or other blogs featuring more mug rugs.  The best thing about them, they are done in less than an hour! Woo hoo!