Friday, September 24, 2010

Brown Bag Quilt


So, I'm doing my first interactive quilt (I'm not sure interactive is the right word...), but I've sent a little box of fabric off and have received a box for the Brown Bag Quilt Contest.  I wasn't sure that I would get it in time before I head to the O-H, so I had it sent to my parents' house.  My mom opened the package, and I'm really excited to get my hands on it and come up with a concept.

Here's what I sent out, some of it was in the stash that Em gave me when she cleaned out her old sewing room (now baby room) and some was from the infamous box of fabric my mom sent me.  I think it could make something fun, I hope my Brown Bag partner enjoys it.


I haven't been writing too much lately because I've been super busy.  I had an entire play to design (I have all the rough sketches done and approved!) and now I'm cleaning out my apartment.  Which doesn't seem time consuming until I tell you that one of my closets looked like it could have been on an episode of Hoarders.  It is fully functioning now.  (Not to mention that it's TV premiere week, so I've had a lot of watching/writing to do for my other blog.  ha!)  I hope to work on my t-shirt quilt a little bit before I head out next weekend, but I'm not confident that will happen.  I am bringing a lot of quilting stuff with me, so I will continue to quilt during my Ohio excursion.
Monday, September 13, 2010

A Quilter's Requirement?

I feel like it's a requirement as a quilter to do at least one t-shirt quilt in your "career."  This is pretty perfect for me too; my whole life my mother has been telling me to get rid of my t-shirts.  Many of my t-shirts (much like my baby blanket) are worn out and were loved for a few too many years.  It turns out that once I start making stuff for myself I can't stop-- plus, I'm an Aries and we are really good at starting new projects, but very bad at finishing them...

I wasn't really sure how to go about making a t-shirt quilt for myself for many reasons.  First off, I don't have enough of any particular type of t-shirt to do a full quilt out of one type (I am very close with gymnastics t-shirts, but some of my oldest have mysteriously disappeared and there are some that I still wear to the gym).  Also, it would be hard to do the same sized squares for each t-shirts because they range in size from a kid's medium to a men's XL.

I decided to do a little online research to see some of the quilts that others had done, and I came across this pattern of sorts.

It is definitely too big for what I want 1) I want a lap quilt, not something you could put on a king sized bed and 2) I don't have the many t-shirts that I'm willing to cut up, so I printed it out and cut and taped it until I thought that it looked good and doable.


I have begun to cut the t-shirts, which is proving quite hard.  I hate squares to begin with, but with no salvage and with 15 year old jersey knits, some of them look a little wonky.  I'm going to have to get some interfacing if I actually ever want to finish it.  An other problem that I am encountering is that many of these t-shirts were retired because they were either so worn out that they have holes in them or I spilled something and stained them, or I used them in grad school as painting shirts.  For these reasons, cutting them is even trickier.  Obviously, I cannot have any holes in the quilt and I'm trying to keep it so there is also no paint, or food or hair dye stains.  I'm clumsy.


On a side note, does anyone know if you can recycle cotton?  I don't want to throw of the fabric that I cut off of the t-shirts and I can't imagine choosing to work with jersey.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

72nd Street Subway

I want to do this.

And use this photo as inspiration- maybe this is too literal to be inspiration, but I don't think so.  (I had this idea a few months ago, but this might actually motivate me to do it.)

this is the wall of the 1/2/3 subway station at 72nd Street in Manhattan.  I stare at it a lot.  One day I decided it would make a great quilt.

Friday, September 10, 2010

I Have A Plan, I Swear

I'm in the process of cutting the fabric for the first quilt that I'm making for myself.  This picture sorta make it look like I don't have a plan, but I swear, I know what I want it to look like in my head.  I laid it out to see how many more strips I need in order to make it and I'm really glad that I did because I'm rethinking that size.  I looked up how large a quilt should be for a double bed and it said a minimum of 80" wide.  I laid it out of my queen size bed and it looks huge, but I may make it a bit smaller than planned, especially since the cool part of the quilt is going to be the detailing on the sides (trust me).  I also learned that I need some more neutral-y fabrics.  I chose these fabrics because most of them have meaning for me (duvet covers from years past, my love of football, gifts from friends, the first vintage fabric I ever bought), but it's starting to look large pattern heavy even busier than I thought it might.


I won't be posting completed photos of this one until October because after seeing it on my bed, I don't think that there is room for me to lay out the whole thing in my apartment (which I'm really going to need to do for this one), so I may have to wait until I'm in Ohio to put it together.  If I get anxious, I may be after to move some furniture in my living and dining room sewing room.  I hope this one turns out well!  I also want to get a darning foot for my machine and try to do something a little more interesting than a straight line for the actual quilting, but I won't be surprised if I ended up scratching that idea and just doing what I'm comfortable with (and have the materials for).  Time (hopefully not too much time) will tell.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Space Robot Animals

I made these little guys for a baby shower gift.  Turns out stuffed animals are not my forte, but they are pretty cute despite imperfections.  Again, sorry for the iphone photos.





I'm starting a new quilt this week for myself.  It'll be the first one I've made for personal use and also my biggest yet.  I am making it to go on the double bed that I'll be sleeping this fall while on location.  I have no clue how it's going to turn out, but I'm excited nonetheless.