Fun with tee shirts

Last night when I was watching the Olympics, I played with a paper copy of the tee shirt blocks I need to sew later. It helps me decide what to do for the design instead of moving the shirts around on the wall. After some tweaking, and adding frames on the blocks, I am ready to go ahead with my design idea tomorrow.

Playing with the paper mock up

The actual blocks arranged on the design wall. You can see I hadn't taken the circles into consideration...oops.

This is the probable design. I'm still not happy with the circles and arrow...

Meanwhile, I took in this unbelievable tee shirt quilt my customer made for her daughter. Wow! Is all I can say about it. So many details and embroidered blocks to compliment the shirts. This is one lucky girl to get this beauty.

So much to look at and admire!! The details in this quilt are crazy good!

The go to tee shirt panto: Dazzle

A satin finish cotton on the back

I also worked on the antique quilts, taking off bindings in front of the TV.

The binding on this baby quilt is completely worn through on the edge.

I had to remove the front strip of binding...then the back!

I finished up the last row of the UFO quilt and will get it bound soon. Not a favorite quilt, but its going to be done and used. I plan to have it on the daybed in the office. (our over-flow guest room!) 

Now, a bit more ice skating and then off to bed!

Boy, I really wasted big chunks of my Kaffe stash on this...what was I thinking? I don't remember why I made it, so I can't answer that question!

I tried a new, and fairly dense panto: Sunflowers

Not as bright as the front, but I still like this backing fabric.

Tee shirts and baby quilts

Yesterday, I spent my time quilting the two baby quilts and prepping shirts for a new tee shirt quilt. Not a very exciting day, but a fruitful one.

Number one. The fabric line for the blocks is called Lullabye, by Moda

Panto: Splat

The ducky backing

Number two. One is bound and done, the other will be done tonight.

In the afternoon, I loaded and started a five year  old UFO of my own, and simultaneously started a tee shirt quilt quilt project for a customer. I really like the puzzle a tee shirt quilt poses, and figuring out how to best position the shirts in the size quilt requested is fun for me. Today, I will juggle shirts until they look balanced and get busy sewing the quilt.

The shirts are ready, and so am I!

Those small bits I sprinkle into the mix.

I'm off to the studio and another day of doing what I love best, sewing and quilting! Oh yes, The polyester knit quilt went home yesterday, and the owner was thrilled. It will hang over a railing of her loft. That's good, because it looks pretty good from a distance. Everyone is happy.

Next project!

Late yesterday we got the APQS put back together and today I quilted this customer's Valentine quilt. Perfect! Also, replacing the wheels and axels seems to have fixed the drag problem. I will load a quilt of mine to give the free motion quilting a try.

My customer is demonstrating this technique at guild next week. It looks paper pieced, but it isn't.

Panto: Locket

I like the backing, too.

Its time to turn the page with repairs, and do one that's beautiful, easier and fun! Take a look at this wonderful late 1920s Dresden plate quilt.

The binding was 1 1/2 inches wide!! Here, I've flattened it out to show the 80 plus years of fading. The original color was the dark green.

The border was also the dark green, now faded to light mint.

Someone did a really bad repair!

The thread used in the repair is really thick and quite strong.

The front of the repaired place looked like this.

I took out the bad stitching and this is the tear. This will be an easy fix and will look great when done.

Here's the fading of the pink inner border.

The quilt is in pretty good shape for its age, the repairs will be simple. I marked the blades with holes with safety pins.

I love the blades where they used two fabrics to make a blade.

Isn't this a great quilt? I bet when it was new it was colorful and snazzy. Now, it has that shabby chic look. What the new quilters call "low volume".

The hand quilting is lovely, too.

Giving the washer a workout

Mr W and I had a long discussion about whether or not to wash the Big Bertha quilt in the domestic washer. Both of us have fears of the machine taking off, or exploding during the spin cycle! After draining off the water in the tub, we let the quilt sit for the day to get as much water out as possible before washing it. My biggest disappointment was the Oxyclean did nothing to get the mold out. It is as black and awful as ever. I know bleach might work, but you don't bleach quilts!! Especially polyester ones...
Anyway, the quilt is in the washer, and so far so good. Let's look at where I started, and where we are today.

Everywhere you see a pink 'frame' of fabric around a square, I had to replace a block of fabric. Next to the dark blue, you can see some of the first row that have been sewn.

Its in there!! Tumbling and spinning without incident, so far.

Once I get it in the dryer, I will relax a bit.I'm supposed to be at a sew in at the fabric store in twenty minutes, but can see I'll be late because of the washing marathon. Oh well, the parts came for the APQS and Mr W is chomping at the bit to get the machine off the carriage and begin taking off the wheels and putting on the new ones. I need to help him with this, so I had better get on the stick and get going, too!! I will post later today with the washing results. Fingers crossed that nothing comes apart!!

 

Postscript!: The washing went well and the washer is still intact. The quilt itself looks so clean and smells fresh and clean. I am so happy, and I hope the customer will be, too!

The black moldy areas are much cleaner now. (the quilt underneath is on the bed, not the front of the repaired quilt)

Still a bit of black spots, but waaaaay better!

Huzzah!! Hoorah!!

Today is a great day!! I have finished the double knit polyester quilt repair. 92 blocks replaced, the binding re-sewn and 4 blocks repaired. I will give it an Oxyclean soak, hoping to remove some of the mold from the back, and then a good wash and the triumphant return to the customer's family. I hope I never have another quilt made of double knit again!

It doesn't look half bad...but it still weighs 40 pounds!!

Mr Wazoo took advantage of the rainy cold weather to dash off the quilting on this twister wreath. The customer is really getting a jump on Christmas!

I have made these before. It is a really fun technique!

Panto: Holly berries

The quilting really shows on the back

I spent my 'day off' lolly-gagging while watching highlights from the Olympics and eating French toast. I started in the studio at noon, and managed to finish one of the baby quilts for the soon-to-be twin girls for a friend of our own twins! The blocks are ready to be sewn on the second quilt, and I should be able to fit that in tomorrow after my Block of the month class. Mr Wazoo says if the weather is bad, he will get the first one quilted for me. How sweet...(pray for rain!)

The first of the two quilts has the aqua alternate blocks.

I used a Moda Jelly Roll, I think it is called something Lullabye, but I can't remember. I will check the label tomorrow and put the collection title here.

Here is the second quilt, waiting to be sewn.

The peach color isn't right in this picture. It is much lighter than it looks here.

Cute animals in the focus fabric of the collection.

The taupe fabric with the little ducks will be the back of both quilts.