4 Clothing Quilts

I recently reconnected with a friend I went to school with via facebook.  Elizabeth does quilling, makes jewelry, and the occasional quilt.  I also befriended her mother on facebook.  Elizabeth's Mom, Jacqueline, lost her Mother recently.  Jacqueline and Elizabeth saved a bunch of her clothing with the intention of having it made into a quilt.   Jacqueline separated the clothing by color into 4 stacks, and each stack would be made into a different quilt.  

I've made several T-shirt quilts, but never made a quilt out of just clothing.   To be honest, a year ago, I probably wouldn't have felt confident enough to make a quilt out of clothing.   Working with a variety of different fabrics raises the difficulty level significantly.  Some fabrics are stretchy, some are very thin, and some fray like crazy.  Using a lightweight fusible stablizer on some of the stretchy and thin fabrics helped a great deal.  All-in-all I think they turned out quite well.  I gained alot of confidence with these quilts and look forward to working with clothing again. 

These are the stacks of clothing, after I had removed all of the seams, and unusable stuff.  

I started with the blue fabrics first.  Since there were more of them than the others, I choose the blues to use for the Log Cabin quilt.   This is a combination of log cabin blocks and pocket blocks.  (Pockets from the clothing) This is actually the first time I have made a log cabin quilt.  Strips are 1.5" finished. 

Next quilt I started on was the purples.  Here are all of my squares, with drawn stitching lines for HSTs.  

and here are all my HSTs, pressed and ready to be sewn. =cD

The finished top.  

I used the "Trail to Treadlonia" block for the greens.  Since there were not a whole lot of green fabrics, I used a white background fabric for this quilt.  

Here are all my TTT blocks trimmed, and a pile of trimmings. ;c) 

TTT blocks hanging on the wall.  I was thinking about adding the pockets to this one, but it didn't look quite right. 

For the red group, I kept it simple.  Just some simple 3" finished squares and pockets.  

Here are all my quilt tops, and backings.  The backings are all homespuns. 

 Closeup shot of the quilting on the green quilt.  For the Green and Red Quilt I used this super thick batting.  It was very hard on my back and shoulders, but it really turned out good I think.

 Quilting on the Red quilt.

Quilting on the Blue Quilt

Quilting on the Purple Quilt

Finished Purple Quilt

Finished Red Quilt

Finished Blue Quilt

Finished Green Quilt

Project Quilting #2 Making Music

Here it is. . TADA. . my "Project Quilting" challenge entry.

The song I chose for this project is "The Music Never Stopped." The original artist is John Barlow but the version I like best is when Bobby Weir sings it from the Grateful Dead.

This is a Reversible Quilted Tote.

I used my grated hand-dyed fabrics for this tote and quilted it with my new machine using variegated metalic thread.

Here are some shots before the tote was assembled:

For the red contrasting pocket I quilted a "hearts" motif. - one of my favorite stitches.

I quilted a large feather on this side

The blue contrasting pocket holds a treble clef, and stippled background

For the musical notes I used Steam-a-Seam II light. The fabric is a fuzzy fabric I hand-dyed brown. . I used a raw-edge applique stitch to secure.

After I had assembled the sides, straps I was ready to turn it RIGHT-SIDE OUT. Since I used batting on both the lining AND the outside . . to make it reversible and have both parts quilted. . it was a bit of trouble getting it turned. This part reminded me of the old "Popples" dolls. tee hee.

Alright. . all done!

I'm not certain which side is the correct "outside" and "inside" . . But here is the RED sides:

and here is the blue sides:

Closeup of the treble clef pocket

You have until Sunday at Noon to join in the "Project Quilting" Challenge over at Kim's Crafty Apple!

Oh and BTW, go HERE to my previous post to WIN a "jelly roll" of these exact hand dyes. Leave me a comment on that post by Friday for a chance to win.

1 Tquilt done!

Finished Molly's T-Shirt Quilt

I embroidered the name free-motion with a wide, zig-zag stitch in burgundy thread

I used the background fabric to applique "2012" and a raw-edge applique stitch.

For the burgundy parts of the quilt I used a HEARTS quilt motif.

The light blue areas I used a paisley stitch

In the blue areas I did an echo motif.

I couldn't get a good photo of the black areas. . but I used pebbles in those areas.

I put a little feather in this area. . SO CUTE!

I am a FMQaholic.

I recently was awarded the "FAN OF THE MONTH" from Wonderfil's Fan of the Month Contest. I was only the 2nd winner of this contest and I think it's mainly because not many people are aware of the contest. The WINNER gets a fabulous thread package from Wonderfil.

Go here to check out the rules and to find out how to enter the contest: http://www.facebook.com/wonderfil

I received my thread package/winnings in the mail this week. It didn't take hardly ANY time to arrive! Well I opened the package and . . . . started drooling. ;c)

So many beautiful threads to try! As a matter of fact, they include one large spool of each type of thread they offer. Lots of Cotton, Rayon, Metalic and variegated threads.

The threads along with my friend Tiffany having a birthday inspired me to start a new project. I started thinking about what I could make for Miss tiffany. I just finished making another friend of ours pot holders and didn't want to do that again. I decided to go with a TOTE, but not just any tote. I decided to make a FMQ'd TOTE!!!

I still have almost all of the fabric left from my last batch of hand-dyes. Since the dyes didn't turn out very bright, they made the perfect backdrop for some FMQ practice/playing.

I went to http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/ for inspiration.... AS ALWAYS, thank you SO much Leah Day for all your hard work. Here's some photos of my finished project, and I'll show you which FMQ filler design I used and give you a link to it. Isn't that nice of me? ;cD

So here's the tote, I sandwiched the pieces together and used variegated thread to quilt them.

I just used some cheap polyester batting for the center, the bottom is squared off so it will be flat. It's a little TALLER than I originally anticipated but that's okay. I see it as a nice beach bag or something. And the Strap is long, so she can throw it over her shoulder if need-be.

***Click on any of the photos to make them larger if you wish.****

Okay for the top design (pink) I used Leah's pattern "GIANT SNAIL"

The bottom design (blue) I used her pattern: "CHECKERBOARD"

The top pattern (green) I used the design "BUTTERFLY FEATHER FLOWER"

For the bottom pattern (orange) I used "PEBBLE MAZE"

For the TOP design on this one (Pink) I used "OCEAN CURRENT"

For the bottom part (blue) I used a simple "STIPPLE" ~ This is the first block I quilted and I wasn't sure what I was going to do . . . you can't go wrong with stippling ;c)

Okay for the top part of this one (green) I sort of used my own little pattern here. I had originally planned on just quilting straight lines and ending it at that. BUT, after I quilted half the lines I realized that plain lines weren't going to satisfy me. So I did a variation of the Giant Snail pattern from above. These "C" or Banana shapes are what you use to fill in your squigglys when you're doing McTavishing. They're one of my favorite shapes to play with when FMQing because there's JUST ENOUGH thread play.. Also, the shape really works nicely with your batting adding SO MUCH texture to your finished quilt! If you've never tried this type of quilting pattern before I HIGHLY recommend it. Feel free to try what I did. First quilt just straight or diagonal lines . . . they don't even have to be evenly spaced. Then just go back and forth making "C" shapes. It's a beautiful look to the finished quilt.

BUT I DIGRESS ;c) for the bottom part of the above photo (yellow) I used Leah's design "SUPER DAISY" ~ This one was my husband's favorite and it was much easier than I originally had anticipated. I can't speak highly enough of Leah and her website. She is SO generous for showing us so many amazing quilting patterns. It's so nice when you're stuck in a spot and lacking ideas. . you can just go to her website and all the photos are all laid out for you and you can just go through and pick the one that you like. She even gives you a VIDEO explaining in detail how to quilt EACH ONE!!! She's done so much for the FMQ world!!!

And finally for the bottom:

I used Leah's paisley design called "MUSSEL SHELL"

So the next time you want to make a tote. . . why not JAZZ it up a little and use some FUN Free-motion designs!!! It makes a beautiful, SOFT tote that's completely washable!

If you make one, please send me a pic!! KRATI@AOL.COM

I would love to feature the photo here on this blog!