Hello Again

I have just taken a little (long?) vacation from blogging. I'm not exactly sure what happened because I really didn't plan on doing it. Anyway, I'm back and plan to try not to take such a long break next time. 

I was still sewing and quilting on my break so I have several things to share. I may make 2 posts in the next few days and then another on Jan 25, when I will share my block of the month for 2014.


BLOCK OF THE MONTH

I think I'll start with my block of the month blocks since my last post. I finished all of the blocks in October (many of them were rows); the blocks were all made with 2 inch finished squares and the theme was winter. It's going to make a nice quilt. 

These are the blocks for the rest of the year - June through October.

When I began to lay out the blocks and rows to assemble the quilt top, I found a mistake - somehow I had made one row too long. After some searching, I realized that I had added an extra column between each cup. After some unsewing, I was able to make the row the same size as the others.

Whoops, I made a mistake!

On January 24, 25, and 26,  Quilt Doodles Design is having a blog hop of those who want to show their quilts. Check her website at http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com/
on the 24th and you should see the list of those participating. My day is Jan 25th so check back that day to see my quilt put together and hopefully quilted.

Graduation Quilt
One of my nieces graduated from high school last May and a few months before graduation, her mother called me. She wanted to know if I knew anything about making t-shirt quilts because she was thinking about making one for her daughter. The short story is that I found out my LQS was having a class in Aug and I decided that a t-shirt quilt would be the perfect graduation gift. I was given approval to make a quilt, she gave me the t-shirts, and we collaborated over fabric (thank goodness for smartphones!). I finished it and took it to her in the middle of September. Here are some pictures.

            

Planning the layout

Quilting it on my domestic machine - it was really heavy.


My plan for the border design on the left and the actual border quilting on the right. It's adapted from a design I found at theinboxjaunt.com. I adapted it because I needed to travel down the border with it and because I couldn't do the design as intricately as she did. I was really happy with the result.

On the left is the label (so you can see the southwest fabric we chose for the back) and on the right she is posing with the quilt.

I found this t-shirt that I just loved and made it into a pillow for her. If you look close, you can see words that are associated with Texas A&M University (Gig 'em Aggies!) - they are very visible in the picture but when I first saw the shirt I only saw the words and not the fact that there was a block ATM.