Saturday, May 29, 2010

Commission T-shirt quilt

I've been working on a commission t-shirt quilt. It will be a graduation gift for someone finishing high school. I like the way it came out (though I have realized that I have undercharged by quite a bit). This photo shows the quilt finished except for the binding and the label. I'm embroidering a label right now. I'm not sure if I'll be happy with the way it's coming out because I'm using one strand of floss and it looks kind of choppy. If I'm not happy with it, I just hand-write the label.
This is the backing fabric. It's a blue paisley in the Good Earth collection by Alexander Henry Fabrics. It's quilted in a variegated green with a meandering pattern. I meandered right over the t-shirt motifs. It seemed to work fine except for when the image on the t-shirt was especially thick. Then I found that my thread kept breaking unless I slowed way down.

We're also attempting to paint the master bedroom this weekend, which involves removing an especially ugly wallpaper border. It's going to be a busy one!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

So this happened

Yeah. It's my daughter's latest craft project. It's alpaca wool felted around a lump of soap. I think it looks more like something the cat coughed up, but her little hands made it, so... yeah. It smells the way you'd expect a wet alpaca to smell. The idea is that the soap gets embedded in the felt and comes through as you use it. So, of course Molly wants to take a bath with it now. Lovely.

And here's a glimpse of my latest contribution to the row round robin I'm in.It's 3:22 a.m. and I can't sleep. I'm really happy because I got off a video call a while ago with a close friend who I haven't seen in a long time. He lives in Australia now, which makes timing a bit tricky, but we slipped into conversation as if it had been only ten days since we last talked instead of nearly ten years. The internet is a wonderful thing. Now I want to send him something I've made.

Monday, May 10, 2010

hodgepodge

The Quiltathon is over! There is still time to donate if you'd like (please do -- this link will add to my goal), but the work is (mostly) done. Here's a shot of most of my team, including Becky, Michele, Allen, Mary and Deb. Only Coni is not in this shot (sorry, Coni!).
We worked Friday night from 10 pm until 1 am. We got quite a lot of work done, though it's hard to quantify because we were working on three different quilts at once. Here's an arty shot of Allen's hands quilting one of the rows!
So far I'm in the lead as far as individual donations go, but the next person is really nipping at my heels. I really want to be the person with the most personal donations. So, if you've been thinking about it, or if you were one of the people who asked me, "what can I do?" while I was going through treatment, here is your chance to help!

I've also been making more tooth fairy pillows. I decided, after much harass--... er, encouragement, from my fellow quilters, that I should charge $15 instead of $10.
Lastly, I'm working on a commission piece. It's a t-shirt quilt for someone who is graduating high school soon. I have framed all the shirts in a green batik and am working on what to use for the background. Here they are on a solid, but I think we'll be going with something more lively. I do like how the one batik ties them all together, though. T-shirt quilts can be tricky because they don't often have a consistent color to them.
I'll be taking more commissions as time goes on. If you know of anyone who wants a t-shirt quilt made, let me know!