Every Piece Has a Story

This quilt has the pink velour border made from a pair of Grandma's favorite painting pants. The center shirt is complete with spots and stains, evidence that Grandma loved to cook. 

The sashing is made from the same pink velour as above quilt. 

      I am a history nerd. I confess. Maybe that's why I love making these quilts.  Each quilt tells a family's history. There are as many different stories as there are shirts and I love to hear about them.  A box or bag of shirts might have most people scratching their heads and tossing the box or bag in the garbage or "donate" bin. I see a big soft scrapbook. Yes, to me, these quilts are scrapbooks you can wrap up in and  your mind wanders to a certain time when you or a loved one wore those shirts. It was a club or sports team your child was a part of or a shirt from a vacation or just one of your favorites, too worn out to wear again but too sentimental to throw away.
     These 2 quilts will be for 2 little girls who lost their Grandma too soon. They have a combination of shirts Grandma wore and shirts the girls outgrew, a couple of them gifts from Grandma. I used a combination of light denim and pink velour for the borders and sashing. The pink velour was from a pair of pants Grandma wore, complete with stains from a favorite hobby of hers, painting. As her daughter explained, Grandma loved to paint, cook, and the stains on the fabric is a part of her story.
     The girls may not remember everything about their Grandma but they have a permanent "scrapbook" to hold and snuggle under. Mom can point out different shirts and tell the girls a fond memory about each one and her mom's legacy will stay alive, a reminder that the girls had a Grandma who loved them very much. I think the girls will treasure their Christmas gifts!

Close-up of quilt with bright pink back.

Close-up of purple backed quilt, the pink and white shirt is one the grand daughter outgrew. 

Pillow made from 1 shirt and below shows the back side of the pillow. It is bordered with the pink velour.

Back side of above pillow made form Grandma's sweater.   

Fighting Mad!

My friend, Tish, is fighting mad. No, not, at someone, at cancer. She decided she would wear do-rags once she lost her hair from the chemo. Her favorite college football team is University of Tennessee. We searched and searched for a UT do-rag but they don't make them! Go figure, they make everything else with the "T" logo on it. So I got a blue do-rag from her to make a pattern and made one for her myself! I used 1/3 yard of fabric. That's about all you need but I could have used a half yard with this one because of the print on the fabric. I was trying to get the "T" centered on the d-rag and I had to kind-of piece the fabric together to get the "T" centered.

I cut 1 piece 20" long and 4" wide for the front part that wraps around the forehead. Then I cut 2 pieces 10" long and 2" wide for the ties.  On the right is the  "pattern" blue do-rag. 

I sewed the 20"x4" inside out lengthwise to make a tube then turned right side out and pressed so the seam was in the center on the backside. 

This shows the backside of the forehead piece. Mine looks off-center because I was centering the "T". Usually the seam is centered more.

Press the long edges of the 2 10"x2" pieces twice to make a finished edge about 1/8" each time and top-stitch. Then sew to forehead piece  at each end. 

Flip over to outside and top-stitch so it lays right. 

These are the side panels. They are 9 3/4" long and 5" at the widest point. The left side (which is the pointy edge) goes toward the front, the right side toward the back. 

Okay, I know this looks crooked but it's just the way the "T" is printed on the fabric. This is the tail of the do-rag. It goes on the back bottom. I just cut out the piece 4 1/4" on each side and 6" at the widest part. Measuring top to bottom is 7". I folded 1/8" twice and pressed the seam before I top-stitched it.

This is my top piece. I forgot to measure it. In the bottom of this photo is the "front". 

I sewed the front of the top piece to the forehead piece then top-stitched so it would lay right then sewed my side "eye shaped" pieces to all of it. 

This shows where I sewed the tail to the back.

Here are the side "eye-shaped" pieces sewn to the forehead piece. 

Turn Me Loose Like a Kid in a Candy Store

My daughter, Cassidy, started college this fall and, being the obsessed-with-fixing-up-everything-with-fabric mom, I went into bedding sewing overdrive. Since our son moved home to go to school locally,we saved his dorm bedding for "someday I'll need this". He had everything navy and brown.We went to Short Sheets in Crossville. Let's just say I was like a kid in a candy store! 

She already picked out the bedsheets at Target in teal. I made the duvet cover reversible, red and white on 1 side,  grey on the other.