King Quilt

I have been working, off and on, on a quilt for Emma made up of bits and pieces of clothes she has worn and loved, as well as other bits of fabric and what not that she finds interesting. I recently added a bunch of pieces to her quilt which I blogged about here.

I have had quilts on the brain a lot lately. We are in the process of getting out house ready to sell, which means finally, finally, my hubby is ready to purge his wardrobe. Many of the t-shirts that he has were bought for a specific reason, but he is a creature of habit and typically wears the same thing every day- a white t-shirt (with some sort of logo) and blue jeans. All those colored shirts in his closet are just taking up space.

So, I convinced him to hand them over, and I did what I could to preserve the memories. 

Of course the bobby would need filling as soon as the hubby gets up to take pictures

See that pinkish lump over my left shoulder? That would be Emma sleeping in the bed that we have relocated to the family room while fixing up the bedroom. Hence the crappy lighting. 

This was my progress as of last night. This and a bunch of smaller squares and rectangles. 

Hand stitched pieces

"It has sentimental value." 

Most of the shirts from the hubby are either paintball related or Air Force related.

Here is where I am after spending a bit of time on it today.

I am currently at 56" x 43" and I need to be at about 96" x 96" for it to fit our bed with plenty of over hang. Still trying to figure out what I will use as the middle layer and how I will do the actual quilting part. Might end up knotting it.

Short Work

The title may not be as witty as I thought, but it is past my bedtime.

I am up late because I am super exited about the shorts that I have been making lately.

And by lately I mean yesterday and today.

Here are the ones I made earlier today.

The shorts are super comfy and I was really happy with how they turned out, except the stitching shows wicked bad (I don't use the word wicked enough anymore- I must be losing touch with my New England up-bringing).  

Oh, and I haven't added a waist yet. I was too busy wearing them :)

I made a second pair tonight. This pair I made for 2 reasons.

1. I really need shorts

2. I have this awesome fabric I bought on clearance forever ago and I want to make some shorts with it, but I want them to come out really good.

So I have been practicing. I haven't got the waist part down yet :(

The second pair I made tonight I made from a button down shirt. I think they came out pretty cool (except for the waist).

These pants have the buttons down one side and a pocket in the front and back. I sewed the button down part closed so there wouldn't be any gaps and such showing off my undies.

Any who. That is what I have been up to the last few days.

When I haven't been working on shorts, I have been getting some stuff together because I will be a vendor at the next Sample Sunday at Prairieland Herbs in Woodward, IA. I am super excited and a little nervous. I am going to be selling:
Vinyl Record Bowls and Cups

 Recycled Journals- The journal covers are made from the vinyl record covers.

Granola Notes- Blank note cards made from Sunbelt granola bar boxes and old calendars and maps.

I will also have some felt flowers and a chaotic mix of some other goodies, but I am trying to focus (for my first time anyway) on just a few of the items I make. 

If you live in the central Iowa area and are looking for something to do, stop on by Prarieland Herbs on June 12th for their Sample Sunday! 

Painting the Roses Red

We have a local place that offers clothes for free. It is all donation based, and so we try to bring clothes in whenever we clean out our closets.

I was there a few weekends ago when I came across this shirt.

I asked Emma if she would like me to make her some pants out if it. She looked at it, touched it, then informed me, "That shirt is too boring. Maybe if the flowers where colored."

Now it just so happens that I have jars of dye sitting on my counter. Out came the red,

I realized that I wasn't going to have enough fabric to make pants, so we went with capris, which Emma loves. I did manage to find a scrap big enough to make a matching shirt (also made from an adults shirt)

This is the "finished" outfit. I had her try everything on and she wouldn't take it off so that I could finish hemming the waist, sleeves or shirt bottom. 

Oh well, I am just glad she likes it :)

When I got the latest issue of Family Fun magazine, I was super excited! There are a bunch of cool ideas in there, but the one I got the most excited about was the one where I got to use my hula hoop. Unfortunately it isn't on the website yet, so if anyone is interested in making one, I would be happy to post a tutorial.

Once Emma saw I was using her 'wula hoop' she wanted in on the project.

Da took a few photos.

Emma realized Da was taking photos...

she thought it best to wave (while I was consulting the directions).

Back to work.

Looks like a cool spider web.

Emma lost interest in the weaving so she grabbed a lollipop and a Bone book.

I decided to be sneaky about taking a photo. Stupid red eye detection gave me away. 

Close up of my weaving.

Emma reading out loud.

Apparently at some point I started pulling to tightly so I started to create a basket, or a sombrero. 

My second attempt turned out much better. I didn't have any more colored t-shirts, just some of Jared's old undershirts.

White would be way to boring. Grungy white even worse.

Bring on the dye!

My technical mixing lab. 

Blue (which looked REALLY purple)

Purple

Red

Soaking shirts. I realized after I started soaking them that my shirt to dye ratio was off. I had 4 shirts and 6 bowls of dye. I probably should have cut them into strips first. 

Turns out my everyday scissors cut wet fabric pretty well. 

Red, orange, yellow

Green

Finished t-shirt loops! Well, mostly finished. I wasn't patient enough to let them dry all the way, but they work just as well damp :)

The beginning. 

The end!

I did a horrible job taking photos during the process. That would be because I was watching 'Lie To Me' while crafting. I managed to get this done while watching 2 episodes (so about 1 1/2 hours). 

Which brings to mind an idea for a blog series.

 Couch Crafting. 

Might have to look into it.