Finishes of a different kind

 I haven't made a T-shirt quilt in many years, but when my daughters childhood friend Sara asked me to make her husband's Warriors souvenir shirts into a quilt I was happy to oblige!   Sara and Troy introduced my daughter Naomi to her (now) husband Josh who also happened to be childhood friends with Troy.   The circles of friendship have been a wonderful part of their growing up.  It's one of those gifts that keeps giving!  

Anywho,  I enjoyed this project.  I feel I have learned a lot about constructing T-shirt quilts over the years.  Nothing like Trial and Error to teach you what works!

The color scheme was easy;  Black -blue- gold with a smattering of grey.  These were all xLg T-shirts with large motifs so i just cut 15" squares from all the T's.  I pieced them using my Serger that has a wonderful even feed mechanism so all the blocks came out pretty square.  

Probably the hardest part was deciding how to quilt it.  I've found that it's best not to quilt through the painted parts.  It messes up the graphics and texture.  So I try to figure out ways to stitch around the motifs while keeping the quilting as even as possible.

 I like to use fleece poly blankets for backings on T-shirt quilts.  It makes a very soft and cuddly quilt despite all the paint.  Sometimes the non quilted spaces get a little bigger than I like but since it's only two layers and both are essentially stretch knits that's really not a problem. And it's way more economical than cost of Batting plus backing fabric.

It helps to have iconic graphics too.  It's hard to beat an outline of the Golden Gate Bridge :)

Another off beat project this past month was that I volunteered to make a Banner for our Annual Firewise Neighborhood Meeting.

I figured if I was gonna make a big thing to hang I might as well make a quilt.  I've got all the materials I need and the construction is all familiar territory.

I borrowed the big red circle idea from the fliers that we send out as reminders a few days before the meeting.

Firewise is a national organisation that helps Neighborhoods in high risk wildfire areas to organise and educate homeowners how to prepare in the event of a wildfire. 

Our neighborhood group started after the CZU fire.  We knew we were in a high risk area for fires but when one happens that close to home it is very motivating!

Here it is near the beginning of the neighborhood road. I only basted the date and time so I can take it off for next years meeting's info.

It's hard to imagine such a grim subject on a beautiful day like that?!

But the dry grass does tell it's own tale.

Yes, Summer has finally arrived here on the central coast.

  And the tomatoes and berries are getting ripe for picking...

We're gonna have a good crop of black berries this year!  I made a Crisp with these berries.  Nothing says Summer like a bowl full of fresh picked berries!

I hope your Summer's are going well!

take care, cw

  

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