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Friday, February 20, 2015

The T-Shirts Tell the Story

If this was the only t-shirt I was showing you, I'm sure you would form an opinion about the person I'm making the quilt for.  It's for a guy and among other things, he worked at Ben & Jerry's in VT over his summer vacations.  Kind of fun and happy.
But there's more to this quilt than a fun summer job.  There is this: "Kill, Maim, Destroy".  
To be honest, I've never put a t-shirt like this in a quilt.
Then there's this one, "Ready to kill, ready to die...".
And this one..... which is a little more light-hearted.  McGuire's is a very popular restaurant in Pensacola.  
And then there is this.
By now you may have guessed this is a quilt for a military person and you may have guessed he is a Marine.  I've never done a t-shirt for a Marine before.  I'm much more used to seeing Powderpuff Football, cheerleading, student activities or college sorority dances.
But seeing all these shirts, cutting them up, putting them back together again, building his quilt, I get a partial sense of the story of his life.  
And that is why I love to do T-shirt quilts.  It's all about the story.
Happy stitching today,
Karen

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Free form Baptist Fan

I never realized there were so many ways to quilt a Baptist Fan pattern.  I've used them for years in hand quilting but have never machine quilted this design. 

I have always used a stencil and a blue pen.
So I will be trying this free form method I found on Bonnie Hunter's blog.  She did hers by hand, but I'll be doing FMQing. 

I hope this works!  Thanks for all the suggestions. We'll know soon how this will go.
Karen



Monday, February 16, 2015

Lunchtime

I'm sitting with this sweet project at lunch today. Hopefully  I'll be finished with this block soon. 

Friday, February 13, 2015

My 4 Patch Quiltalong

I've got other projects that need my attention, but these looked too cute to ignore.
I've decided to dig into my stash of gray and yellow.  It's a collection of old and new, my favorite way to build a quilt.  I've already got a setting design in mind and I think I'll call it "Muted Tuxedo ".  The title will make sense later I hope.  I think it will really look different when I get the background squares cut. I cut the strips last night and it's been a fun morning of sewing.
Got to run to the grocery store soon :(.  But at least it's a start.
Karen

Saturday, February 7, 2015

It's Officially a Flimsy

I have participated in five Bonnie Hunter mysteries.  I never thought I was a mystery person, but I think I sort of am.  There is a part of me that enjoys just cutting fabric and making units and wondering about what it is I'm making.  But sometimes, the end result is not what you expected.  It's just not you. That's kind of what happened this time.  I just didn't connect with the design.  So I put all the blocks away for awhile and let it sit.
And I thought about what it was that I didn't really like. I made the decision to rip all the green sashings apart. By changing the sashing the whole look of the quilt changed.  The "twirliness" (I don't really think that's a word) was what I didn't really like.  The blocks now are more distinct and the blue corner stones are more pronounced.  
While the picture of the original looks good, in person this quilt just really wasn't me.  And I didn't want it to just go to a box and sit there unfinished.
I also played around with the border blocks.
I just really couldn't decide what I wanted.
In the end I went with the original, just flipped the black squares to the outside instead of the inside.
  It will go into the que to be quilted.  It's a very bright quilt.  Maybe someone  in my family will want to claim this one.
The moral of this story is that I kept on until I figured things out and I finished the quilt.  It's not a UFO and that makes me happy.  Who knows how I will feel about this when I get it out the next time - it might just be me!

Pop over to Bonnie's and see all the final quilts.
Happy stitching,
Karen

Friday, February 6, 2015

Memory Quilt #1 Quilting Design

I am ready to start the quilting on my memory quilts (4 in all) and decided to start with this one.  It's basted and ready to go. My question is simple *wink*, how should I quilt it?!
This still seems to be a stumbling block for me.  Should I stitch through the diagonal line both ways in a big "X" and then some fill-in lines or go for an overall swirl?  Something that would contrast with all the straight lines?
Any opinions out there? Has anyone quilted  a quilt using this block?
Curious minds want to know :).
Happy  Friday stitching,
Karen