T-shirts for Kris

Kris brought me these shirts to make a treat for her herself.  Most of them are from rock concerts.  This is a great way to keep the memories fresh.  It's  64 x 86.

I used a pantograph for the quilting - they provide a lot of texture and detail without overwhelming the shirts themselves.

Kris chose black for the backing so her cat's hair won't show  . . 

A Friendly Swap

The best thing about a quilt show in the near future is that I get to quilt some of my own tops.  This one was created from a 4-patch swap that I did with friends in 2015.  We all bought the same neutral fabric, and then made 3" 4-patches out of any fabric we chose - no regards to theme or style.  A great way to use up scraps.  This pattern is "Four Patch X" from Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville, and finishes at 80 x 92

I had all of the fabrics in my stash - things I had bought and never used.  The solid red I have had for years - waiting for just the right project.  It's a nice rich red, and it gets the focus here.

The 4-patches in the block create an X, with red and cheddar setting triangles

I did all straight line quilting.  The 4-patches were simple straight lines creating a cross-hatch effect.  I kept the block quilting simple as I wanted the focus on the sashings.  I used a cheddar thread throughout as I wanted the quilting lines to show.

The red corners come together to create a churn dash block

The cheddar side triangles create a square with the grey sashing running through it.

The borders game me some room for more straight line quilting:

The only fabric I had to buy was a couple of print pieces for the backing.  The rest of the backing fabrics are leftovers from the front:

Life at 60

6 of my friends each made 10 blocks for my 60th birthday.  I added 3 more so I could set them 7 x 9. I love the red/white/black color combo.  Size is 64 x 80.

The block is called "Buckeye Beauty" - which is appropriate because I was born in Ohio - the Buckeye State.  

Buckeye Beauty block

My friends know me well - some of the white fabrics have my favorite pastimes - bicycles, golf balls, and Sudoku puzzles:

Bicycles

golf balls

Sudoku puzzles

I did a lot of straight-line quilting, which I love.  That can be seen in the above photos, and in this one showing the border:

Border quilting

 The only curved areas are in the red squares, and even then I used a ruler to connect them.

red squares

I found a fun red for the backing and binding - 

The red is actually a deeper red - not so orange.

Quilt of Valor

This is another one of mine made from recycled men's cotton shirts.  I love the look of all the plaids and stripes.  There are even two shirts that were my husband's.  Finished sized is 60 x 72.  This will hang in our quilt show in April, then be donated to a veteran through the Quilts of Valor Foundation.

This quilt was presented to Richard Stutz - a WWII veteran - in June 2016.

I used the back of the shirts for the backing of the quilt:

I used a red/white/blue variegated thread and quilted stars, hooks, and line dancing:

star and line dancing in the large white stars

4 hooks and line dancing in the larger squares

one hook and line dancing in the half-snowball blocks

stars spaced all around in the white/cream border

Memories of Lois

Linette brought me the clothing of her mother-in-law to use in a quilt for her husband's birthday.  The pattern I used is Scrappy Mountain Majesties by Bonnie K Hunter.  It's perfect for a memorial quilt since there are lots of different fabrics.  There were a lot of denim shirts, so I used those as a constant in the pattern, mixing those fabrics with all the other different colors.  You can see the blue diamonds created by the denim shirts, while the alternate diamonds are assorted colors.   Finished size is 60 x 65.

Two of the shirts had applique on them, so I saved those parts and used them instead of pieced blocks:

The border fabric is from a denim jumper:

The quilting is a simple vined curl, with a silver thread:

Lois collected lots of things with apples, including this table runner that I used for the label:

I even found apple fabric to use for the backing: