Scratch one off the list...

and mark this deadline as met!  I just finished up the Camo quilt a few minutes ago.  Finished the quilting yesterday, so all that was left was the binding, which I prepped last night!

Front:

Back:

Close up of the quilting:

I FMQd a large stipple/meander...and it is by far my best attempt yet!

I'm so excited to deliver this one to the recipient tomorrow!

Details:
Pattern - sew T-shirts together...end of story
Fabric - Kona solids, Camo material is from unknown source
Interfacing - Pellon 911FF
Batting - Pellon (first time I've used this kind, so excited to see how it washes)
Thread - piecing and quilting - Mettler; binding - Gutterman

getting there...

Well...I am making pretty good progress on at least one quilt on my "deadlines" list from Friday.

I started working on the T-shirt quilt on Thursday, mostly just doing prep-work.  To me, that's the hardest/most tedious part of putting together a T-shirt quilt.  I was given a large number of T-shirts to chose from, and since I had this fab camo material all set aside for this quilt, I chose to work with all browns.  And then went through the stacks of brown T-shirts, eliminated any doubles...and got to work, assembly line style:

I do a rough cut of all the T-shirts, then fuse the shirts (I used Pellon 911FF), then trim them down.  For these shirts, they were large enough that I trimmed them all to match my largest square ruler (15x15).  Then it was time to lay them out, then get them sashed...and here they are:

Now...I decided at this point to add some borders (I may only add one), because the person to whom this quilt will belong is a tall fellow (I'll tell you the story of him when I finish this quilt, he's quite a character).  So right now, that's where I'm at...sewing on some border(s).

Then I need to get the backing pieced.  I'm excited for this one, the back has 3 more shirts, and will be pieced with a nice brown Kona that I picked up.

I even know how I'm going to quilt this one (I think).

So I best be getting to work!

A finish! (and some other stuff)

I got quite a bit accomplished sewing-wise yesterday!  First up, I can finally call the T-Shirt quilt FINISHED!   I had started quilting this one in mid-October, but it felt like such a struggle, so it got tossed to the side to wait for a bit.  Thankfully I figured out WHY it felt like I was fighting the quilt and my machine (one little setting was not correct) and I was able to quickly finish it up on Friday!  So I made the binding yesterday and got it bound (I machine bind all of my quilts, binding is my least favorite thing to do, so I want it done as quickly as possible!).  Here is the front:

and the back:

I FMQd some "scribble" around each T-shirt block and then just for fun, did a very rough trace around each Longhorn.  After it was finished, I promptly presented it to Girl who has an icky cold!  (She was very happy!)

After I finished up the T-shirt quilt, I got to finishing my 36 Rainbow strip blocks, so here they are:

And then I took a break from the machine and watched some Pirates of the Caribbean with Girl (we are now on the 3rd movie) and did a bit of hexie work while watching:

and after watching the 1st pirate movie we jumped into the 2nd and finished up the Scrappy Stash QAL quilt top:

I originally was going to use some Kona Med. Gray to finish it off, but found I didn't have quite enough in my stash, so instead used some Designer Solid in Manatee that I happened to have quite a bit of stashed away.

so now, just need to work on getting the backing done and then baste it and quilt it!

A few errands to run today, and then hopefully right back into the stitching!  Right now I must dash, Girl is waiting to start pirates #3 for me!

15 minute challenge...week 14!

played with lots of fabric this week!

Tuesday:  none

Wednesday: quilted a few on the T-shirt quilt, prepped for the scrappy stash quilt along

Thursday: scrappy stash QAL

Friday: scrappy stash QAL

Saturday: scrappy stash QAL

Sunday: scrappy stash QAL

Monday: none

and made it 5 out of 7 days!  woohooo!  Linking up at Life in Pieces!  I have to admit one minor disappointment this week... I really really wanted to get the T-shirt quilt finished...but I'm just not in love with it right now...so it's backburnered and partially quilted...maybe next week!

15 minute challenge...week 8

so let's just dive in:

Tuesday: Paris Race

Wednesday: none

Thursday: Paris Race

Friday: none

Saturday: Paris Race

Sunday: Swoon and T-shirt Quilt tops finished

Monday: nothing - traveling for business

I spent most of the week sewing for exactly 15 minutes (even set a timer!) just to make it happen.   The majority of the time was spent getting Paris Race quilted.

Now that the Terrain Swoon quilt top is finished, I really have to figure out what I'm going to do for the backing.

In the mean time, I'm ready to get started on my Christmas quilt...I'm going to be using Sweetwater's Countdown to Christmas and I think I'm going to do it using a disappearing nine patch pattern.  (got a couple of charm packs...gotta use them up!).  So that's the next new thing to add to the list.  We'll see how it goes!

Linking up at Life in Pieces.  Have a great week!

15 minute challenge...Week 2

I did a little better this week on the 15 minute challenge (hosted by Kate at Life In Pieces).

Tuesday I dug in on the last three blocks for the T-shirt quilt and got each one about 75% of the way there:

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...nada...I have found that when I work night-shift...that's the time in the week when I pretty much hit a wall and about all I can do is sleep and eat and work...and think about sewing.

Saturday I got the remaining side done on the T-shirt Quilt blocks and now all I have to do is piece the blocks together.  I also started on the California Race quilt for my Mom:

Sunday I worked on California Race:

Monday was more California Race:

So far I'm feeling really good about joining this challenge.  It's definitely helping me to see when I can actually make time to sew with my work life being as hectic as it is.  Nice part...after this week...back on regular daylight hours for a few weeks; bad news...it's only going to get busier at work between now and September!  It will be interesting to compare this week to a month from now to two months from now...to see how it all changes (or maybe it won't!).  I 'm just happy to be sewing a little more regularly!

Later!

15 minute challenge...week 1

Well, I didn't sew every day...and not even the majority of the days...but I did sew at least two of the days! I am linking up over at Life in Pieces.

Wednesday: One block for the T-shirt Quilt (right at about 15 minutes)

Saturday: Block 1 of the FQS 2012 Designer Mystery BOM (much longer than 15 minutes; would have been a bit shorter but I screwed up a few pieces and had to start over)

Now...what did I do the other days of the week?  Worked.  A lot.  On night shift.  But that's not much of an excuse, considering I had ample opportunity when I was home to take just a few minutes to sit down and sew something.  So hopefully I get a little more done this week.

Off to chat with my machine for a few!

distraction...

oh man oh man...can I just say...can I just say that I'm a person who is very easily distracted...and it is pretty obvious if you take a look at my sewing table these days...here is what I'm currently facing (all "arranged" nicely in one section of my table...they were all gathered up from where they had been scattered between different locations on the table and ironing board):

don't you love my crayon-esque circles?

first up...my Tumbler quilt (using my Accuquilt Go):

I've gotten a few rows sewn...and a nice stack of tumblers ready to go...but they sit for now...because I was so easily distracted once I was able to get some Pellon Featherweight and work on this T-shirt quilt:

5 squares have their "borders" on...and another 4 to go...and then they will likely sit for a bit...because I was then distracted by these:

the HST remnants from piecing together all of my Terrain Swoon blocks...which were my leaders and enders for awhile with both the Swoon and the start of the Tumbler rows...that I intend to get sewn into some pinwheel blocks...

speaking of...the Terrain Swoon quilt top is still not pieced together because I was distracted by the Tumbler quilt....my circle of distraction is now complete.

Maybe I'll get one of these things done this weekend...or I'll be further distracted...right now I'm completely distracted by the idea of this fabric...and if I can live without it for a little while longer...or if it's a "must" ASAP...and then of course I'm only mildly distracted anticipating the arrival of this BOM (still a few weeks away)...

I need help!  LOL!

a well loved work in progress

so a few weeks (perhaps longer) ago I decided I wanted to attempt a T-shirt quilt...and thanks to this fab tutorial...I was able to at least start...at about 5 this morning...my sleep schedule is a bit off these days...

I wasn't entirely sure with what T-shirts I wanted to start...until one day I was talking about maybe using some of our old University of Texas shirts to make a quilt...and Girl popped up and said...oh I have a bunch of those...and she ran up to her room and grabbed a bunch of hangers...with the CUTEST little T-shirts on them...all of them were hers...from back in the day when she was a much shorter little one...As I looked at each shirt she "donated" for the cause...well...I was feeling a tad bit emotional...she once was that small!  and my...how she has grown since then...sniff...so I knew immediately that this particular quilt would be special...simply because of the memories...so I pulled what Texas Longhorn related stuff I had in my stash and set out to get going...

and after a bit of trimming...and a few moments where my throat closed up and I remembered my Girl when she was about 5 years old...I ended up with this...

and then after adding some Pellon Featherweight I ended up with this...

enough for 9 total blocks...(still working on the final block sizing).  I'm currently trying to figure out what size I want the blocks to be in the end...and what size borders I'll need for each block...and if I'll have enough of any one fabric to do anything completely cohesive...but in the end...I know it won't matter...this quilt is too special to be worried about the little things...