And finally...

Here's the second of the shirt quilts - the binding on this one is very similar to the other - only it's black rather than navy. These are heading off home this week, hurrah! I think the new owners will be really pleased with how they came out.

One down, one to go

Finally finished attaching the binding to this quilt - took ages, partly because I haven't been watching much telly this week and partly because my fingers were really hurting - I think the fabric might be a bit thick or something. Anyway, hopefully the other one will go a little faster!

Second binding attached

And now the other binding is on the other quilt. Now it's just a matter of doing the hand stitching. Hopefully I'll have a chance to do some this week during the evenings.

One ready!

The blue spotty binding is machined on; now I just have to do the hand stitching to attach it to the back...  The second quilt doesn't have the binding attached just yet, but it won't be long.

Binding ready

Two sets of binding, ready to attach to the shirt quilts... Now to do that part!

Shirt quilt number two

And here's the second one quilted - tried to get a better photo of the meander below...

Shirt quilt number one

Back from the longarm quilter - here's the first of the two quilts. You can sort of see the meander used to quilt it below - the person who commissioned the quilts chose that quilting pattern from a selection. Looking good - only the binding to go now!

Backings ready

Not the most exciting of all sewing jobs, but I did stitch together the backings for the two shirt quilts, so they are ready to go to the longarmer later today. I feel much better having this project nearing completion!

Quilt no 2: Ta da!

It's like London Buses - none for ages then loads come along at once!  But finally, there was a juxtaposition between having free time and not being unwell (I had hoped to work on these at October half term, but had a nasty virus). This is the second quilt top sorted.  Next step will be to acquire backing and binding at the Fabric Sale at Farnham Maltings in January. And I've booked space with the longarmer for these, so it won't be long after that they'll be quilted. I'll still have to bind them but we are getting really close now. Hurrah! Who knows, I might find time for other sewing tomorrow or even Monday, my last day of holiday (we have plans for New Year's Day).

Getting Ready for Quilt 2

Here are the blocks I've made so far for the second of this pair of quilts - I may move them around a bit, but I wante to get an idea of how many more I needed to fill the space in (answer: quite a few as you can really see my rug through them!).  That's a project for another day, though hopefully it will be sometime this week.

You better sit down: there's been actual SEWING!

I can't even tell you how long it's been since I stitched anything. I don't want to think about it!  But here we go - the first of these two quilts - long promised and long overdue - is finally together as a top. Woo hoo!  Hopefully the next few days will show a successful second finish as well.

Before and After (After and Before!)

Here's one of the two quilts, being put together. (There are lots more blocks in another pile for the other quilt). I have laid out all the feature blocks and am now working on putting them together using blocks made from other shirts. The top section is completely together, but as you can see, there are still many gaps below. Getting there, though!

Here it was before I worked on it yesterday - you can see I made quite a few additions. 

Ben's clothes quilts, progress!

Made some more blocks for these quilts today - finally making a little progress after weeks of not sewing anything at all. I really must get these done, I feel bad about taking so long.

More shirt blocks

More blocks made from Ben's shirts. Slowly (very slowly) make progress with this project - the problem is that I don't really like working with shirt fabric (button downs are ok, it's the t-shirts I don't really like) so I never want to do lots of blocks at once. Plus, I'm always just really busy.  But it's getting there.

Some shirt blocks

A few more blocks for the rather delayed quilts I'm making for an old friend from her husband's shirts (mostly) - for her two sons. He died a few years back now, and I've had these shirts for way too long (since last summer) - so it's the top of my autumn To Do list in terms of sewing, I just never seem to do any sewing these days!  Four blocks doesn't seem like a great accomplishment, but I have to spent a lot of time deconstructing the shirts and stabilising, so it's not as quick as just cutting up fat quarters. Still, progress is being made. Slowly.

(Some of) Ben's blocks

A few blocks progress on the quilts I am making for a friend, whose husband died. These quilts will be for their sons, from some of dad's shirts. This batch uses pieces from some of the softer fabric shirts, with stabiliser, and then bordered with strips from a shirt with better heft to it. 

Ben's Shirts Quilts: Step 1

A little while back I mentioned that I'd agreed to make some quilts for a friend from her late husband's shirts, for her two sons. Finally, I've had a chance to sort through the clothes a bit and think about where to start.  There are loads of shirts (and one pair of trousers - perhaps pyjama bottoms), so it will be interesting to see what I can do with them... First step, though, was to sort out those with a specific, large pattern/logo and deal with them: 

So that's what I did. These have large logos/pictures, so I've used some interfacing to stabilise them and made them into large squares or rectangles to allow the maximum use of the designs. 

Next step: buy more interfacing!  Most of the shirts are t-shirts, so are quite soft & flexible - great on your body, not so great when quilting.

A new project looming

This may look like a bag of clothes - there's a good reason for that. It's a bag of clothes.  A friend of mine who used to live in our area and had kids at my kids' primary school moved up north a number of years back. A few years ago, her husband died very suddenly and unexpectedly. This year, she approached me to ask if I'd be willing to make a couple of quilts for her boys from their dad's clothes. Of course I said I'd be glad to, but did warn it would take me a while to get to it... However, as she was visiting in this area in the summer, she dropped the clothes off - and they've been sitting in my cupboard since she did. I still don't quite have time to work on the quilts, but I thought I'd have a quick look in the bag - looks like a nice collection of  t-shirts and regular shirts; should be a couple of nice cozy quilts in the end. When I get to that stage.  Give me another month or two to get cutting!