Looking on the bright side

I really need to stop posting what I think I'll accomplish. I rarely meet the mark. So all I've done with t-shirt projects below is cut the stabilizer pieces for the rough cut t's on the wall. No more machine quilting done on Dad's t-shirt quilt. I did instead finish stripping and repainting a small table, and got that out of the center of the workspace, and upstairs where it belonged. I also had a Sunday sewing time with friends at the local quilt store, but I took along my detailed Cynthia England cat quilt kit to work on. Now there are 4 of the 30+ units done.

Last night I dug out a 17 year old project that was to be a baby quilt for my youngest DD. Found 12 quilt blocks ready to be set, all hand quilted in the quilt as you go method. I'll get her blessing on how to do the setting squares and triangles (it's set on point), and take that to the retreat in 9 days (9 DAYS ONLY!)

I'll also pack along the t-shirt quilt I'm quilting (no way it will be completed though), the England cat project, and my Mitchell's cat drawing I'm still drafting for piecework. For fun I'm also bringing a project for developing a kit that will hold all the mini rulers most quilters get.

Maybe I'll get the t's on the wall stabilized soon. Maybe not. I'm enjoying just sitting on the comfy couch down there, wrapped in a quilt with cat Alice, and perusing patterns and books that inspire me. Lately I've considered trying my hands at dying fabrics with cool surface designs. Not sure if I'll really take the plunge.

First, some photos of the first Tom R. t-shirt quilt top, next on my list of things to quilt.

It's just a bit larger than twin bed sized I think. 

I started laying out the second set of t-shirts from Tom R. This is how they look so far. Next step (this coming weekend?) will be to trim and stabilize them with fusible interfacing. Then they go back on the wall and I draw a diagram of the quilt with rough measurements of each piece, with space for block borders. Then I audition border fabrics, and come up with at least a dozen I'll add to each block. Next, I start adding borders and fitting blocks into chunks that are self contained sections of the top that will hopefully be put together with no set-ins.

For next weekend, I'll settle with stabilizing the blocks. Perhaps by the 3 day weekend I'll take a day and get the top assembled.

I have a retreat coming up Feb. 5-7, and I'd love to have this t-shirt quilt top pieced, and much of my Dad's t-shirt quilt quilted, by then, so I don't feel obligated to bring those projects with me. I'd love to bring other quilts that require large chunks of uninterupted sewing time to the retreat.

This is a quilt finished in 2009 that is usually done with black and white and a pop of color. I tried that at the class with the quilt designer (pattern is Slap Happy by Kay Capps Cross) but didn't like it, so tried my color preferences. Added a border to get it large enough for snuggling, and put a flannel on the back. Because of the foundation layers, lots of seams with the skinny strips, and the flannel, it was hard to quilt and keep puckers off the back, so used strategically placed labels to mask such mishaps.

This was the initial layout on the design wall of the first set of T-shirts from Tom R. It changed a little bit once the shirt borders were put on, but this is the second stage of my process. The first was just the folded shirts, not stabilized yet, to get the general size and color layout into a pleasing set. Here the shirts have been stabilized and trimmed to close to the size I used. I'll need to post a photo of the shirts set in the top next.

So these aren't that 'new' but these are the pictures of the baby quilt finished for Jackson W., the gorgeous baby of Jan and Rusty born September 2009. The corner close up may show the stipple quilting done throughout the quilt.

OK, it's 2010. I spent time over the holidays clearing out stuff from my basement, where I have my quilting workspace. It was depressing heading down those stairs, after months of accumulated junk had been deposited there in 2009. As my mom headed towards selling our family's home, I kept bringing back more mementos-often lots of mementos.

Now I have places to store them. I should have taken some before and after photos. Drat.

What I did since my long ago last post:

1. Layered and quilted Jackson's quilt. It took a blue ribbon at my guild's quilt show in the child/crib quilt category.
2. Made 30+ show ribbons for the quilt show (with help of a wonderful committee). I'll get some photos of those posted soon.
3. Assembled a top of t-shirts from my brother-in-law Tom, for a memory quilt. Only used half of his shirts, so there is enough to make a second one. One will be for my sister (his wife) Jeanne, and the other for his daughter Jan. Projects to finish in 2010. (photo to come)
   
4. Layered my Dad's t-shirt top. First I made the back covered with his famous sayings. This is my quilting project to finish by my February birthday.
5. Made all the brightly colored Jacob's Ladder and 16 patch blocks (with a black background) for a future dd Amanda quilt. (photo to come)
6. And of course, cleaned out my sewing space. Got reacquainted with UFO's, projects I dream of doing, purged fabrics, and made room for a hand-me-down couch for relaxing breaks from the machine quilting to come in the upcoming weeks. Best of all, I can use my cutting table again, and know where all my supplies are.

Now for my list of things to do in the first half of 2010:

1. Quilt my t-shirt quilt
2. Piece the second Tom t-shirt quilt top
3. Assemble the black and colorful quilt blocks into a twin bed top
4. Work on the paper pieced components of my gaggy 30's quilt top
5. Make progress on the complicated pieced cat wall hanging (I'll get the designer's name soon). Also, hopefully find the first 2 pieced sections I did last year! Now where did I put them?
   
6. Draft the Mitchell's cat wall hanging (will use the piecing technique I'm mastering in Item 5 project)

No promise these will get done, or in what order I'll feel like working. Just good to put my ideas down for now.