Marietta T-Shirt Quilt - Finished!

I have a stack of commissioned t-shirt quilts to work through before Christmas, so this is the first of a few you'll see over the next couple of months!

This one is for my husband's cousin, and there were a lot of things I learned while making it.

1. Use a walking foot.

2. Don't accept more than 25 t-shirts. {This one is 21 in the front; 31 in the back.}
3. If you have more than 25...make two quilts. Backing a t-shirt quilt with a t-shirt quilt is a pain!

4. Cut everything to the same size, instead of piecing them together like a puzzle.

5.  If you do piece it like a puzzle, measure and PLAN before cutting.
6. Use a walking foot. For every step!

75x90"
fabrics from Joann's and Hobby Lobby
{I did not pick the colors}
Quilting is cross-hatch through the sashing and diagonal through the blocks, in invisible thread.

Weekly Progress - New Additions

We've had some new additions to the family!

This little guy joined in the beginning of September. His name is Victor, he's a crowntail betta, and I've yet to find the cats in the Dude's room looking at him. Hunting instinct, thou art dead.

 And I got a new sewing machine! Well, not really. I got a very, very old sewing machine. It's a Wheeler & Wilson No. 8, and this guy wrote a good history on the company. My machine is, based on the serial number, from about 1880.

It needs a new belt, and someday a good cleaning/retouching, and the cabinet could stand to be refinished - but it works. 132 years old, and it works! 
{And yes, I totally sold the idea to my husband by mentioning it doesn't need power in case of the zombie apocalypse.}

Fifteen Minute Challenge - Organization

Thanks to realizing I have 18 flimsies that need to be quilted, I got down to some serious procrastination! Nah, actually, I did my fifteen minutes of organizing by getting things ready for quilting - cleaning off the sewing table and putting things away instead of on the cutting table. Cleaning off my cutting table. Cleaning out my scrap box until I found the binding fabric I knew was in the bottom.

...and moving things around so I could fit another sewing machine in the room! {Clearly, I need to find a place for that pile of batting behind it, though.}

Design Wall

No change - I did no piecing, and therefore no leaders/enders, this week. Toyland waits... 

Finished:

The first of four t-shirt quilts before the holidays.
{Finished post here.}

UFO Busting:

 I made friends with my walking foot and got Bad Romance finished up. It had all the lines in one direction, not the other. So it really didn't take all that long to finish up, and the binding is all ready to go. Finishing a quilt is almost as much fun as piecing.

So there will be TWO finished posts this week!

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
UFO Sunday @ the Free Motion Quilting Project

Craft Book Month - Rainbow Sherbet Top

I know - insane - three posts from me in 24 hours! I swear, I'm done for the week after this one.

So Craft Buds hosted a Craft Book Project blog hop this month, ending with a personal project link-up.

I don't actually own a lot of craft books - that's my entire collection, right there.

 But this one made me squeal with delight when I found out about it. {Look! It's signed! Okay, so she signed all the pre-orders.}

I knew exactly which one I wanted to make first, too. I made my first version of Raspberry Dessert back in April. Since I couldn't get my hands on the magazine it was originally published in, I drafted it myself and didn't attempt the on-point setting.

My mother-in-law hired me to make a wall hanging for her entryway, and she very quickly settled on Raspberry Dessert. {This is why I married her son. She has great taste!}

{I tried to get a less sun-dappled shot this morning, but the weather is not cooperating.}

It goes together so much faster when you have the pattern!

I borrowed the rainbow idea from Sew Many Quilts, part of the Scrap Squad from the original magazine pattern. After some debate, my mother-in-law chose a grey marble to go with it - I think it blends better than the black. Plus, it's the grey clouds between the rainbow!

The only complaint I have - and it's not a complaint about this book, just craft books in general - is that I wish it came with templates to copy and color. The original plan was to eliminate the grey and kind of blend the colors across the quilt, but as I colored, I discovered this wouldn't work. Would have been nice if I didn't have to draw the pattern before busting out the crayons.

And now this is on the to-be-quilted pile, but hopefully will not stay there long. I want to see it up on the wall!

Linked:

Craft Buds
Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF @ Quiet Play
Sew and Tell @ Amy Lou Who
Flaunt Your Finish @ the OKC MQG  {which is kind of my local MQG, but not really because it's too far to drive to meetings. but I still keep up with their doings!}
At the End of My Hallway @ from the blue chair
Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

100 Day Hustle / Finish Along Final Quarter

Kelsey Sews is joining the ranks of the UFO busters by hosting a 100 Day Hustle - as in, there's 100 days left in 2012 to finish projects!

Which I really didn't need to know.

But since I now know...
{Thanks a lot!}

 Each one of these is a UFO in the block stage.

But they're not really the problem.

This is.

Every single hanger is a finished flimsy that needs to be quilted. Plus there's three basted and partially quilted. Plus there's a couple more on a chair on the other side of the sewing room.

It's starting to be a problem, because although right now it's nice enough to run outside, soon I'm going to want my treadmill to NOT be a quilt hanger!

Plus, 2013 is going to be pretty busy, what with my husband coming back from deployment...our son coming from Korea...and then moving...all by the summer. {No, we don't know where. And we won't find out till January-ish.}

So I'd really like to clear out all half some of these flimsies by the end of the year.

The list {tops awaiting quilting has some pictures, but hasn't been updated recently}:

Sunkissed Jewel Box

Bad Romance - finished 9/30

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Hunter's Star
Fall-gyle

Star Wall Hanging

Frolicking Pinwheels
Swoon a Little, Swoon a Lot
Striped HST Quilt - finished 10/28

Central Park Sudoku

Layer Cake Snowballs

Nine-Patch-Snowballs

Blue Bowties

Summer Drinks

Skorca!

PEO Wallhanging - finished 10/14

Rainbow Sherbet

Toyland Row Quilt {soon}

OMG, y'all. That's 18 flimsies. How did I let it get this bad? Ack! Okay, I'm not focusing on the number. I'm just going to work through the list as best as I can. And if I haven't completed a quilt every.single.week - yell at me.

And really, really - don't let me quilt it and not bind it!

Linked:

100 Day Hustle @ Kelsey Sews

Finish-Along @ Quilter in the Gap

Weekly Progress - On The Little Things

Lots of little updates this week!

 First, William's first birthday was Sunday. And this part of adoption? Really sucks. Oh well - we will celebrate his second and onward with him!

Second, this old fat boy is doing well. Stitches come out today, and hopefully we'll figure out a diet that prevent the stones coming back for both cats! No easy task, since they get stones for opposite reasons.

Third, since I have a picture of almost all my other kids... I took out my minky scrap box to show to a client. Someone loves minky.

Fifteen Minute Challenge - Organization

Another week with no organization. I really need to get back into the fifteen minute habit, because the flat surfaces are getting covered again!

Design Wall

The Toyland row quilt is pretty close to the assembly stage. It's been a good leader/ender project - I'm going to miss it! Oh wait, I have another one just like it.

Finished

{How to tell if you've exceeded your design wall space}

 My second version of Raspberry Dessert! Full post later this week.

I also finished a wall hanging for my mother, in PEO colors.

And now I really need to work on the to-be-quilted pile!

Blocks

 
Grandmother's Choice (3/4 blocks) - I really doubted my color choices until it was done. Now, I kind of like it.

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Weekly Progress - On the Garden, Not Quilting

My in-laws are currently visiting, which means there's been a lot of yard work and not as much quilt work. Which is okay - this is the only time I like Oklahoma weather, plus the landscaping really need a good fall cleanup so we can sell next spring. And my mother-in-law is the expert for this kind of stuff!

We also had a scare later in the week with my poor Wedge trying to rival other pet emergencies. Took him to the vet for a suspected UTI, his third in the three years we've lived in Oklahoma. 
An x-ray was ordered and bladder stones were discovered, followed by surgery to remove them. And there were a LOT of them. And they appear to be the exact opposite composition of Tycho's bladder stones.
I won't scare you with pictures of his stomach, because a shaved fat cat's stomach is truly hideous. Seriously. And he keeps laying on his back and forcing us to look at it. Dang cat.

Fifteen Minute Challenge

Not even once this week! Yeah, organization is falling to the wayside for a little bit.

Design Wall

To thank my MIL for her landscaping skills, I've been teaching some basic quilting skills while making a second version of Raspberry Dessert. This one is actually dessert-y, like rainbow sherbet.

And on the bottom right, the row quilt is still moving along as a leader/ender. 

Progress:

Polaroid Swap blocks came back! And I'm in love. There was a flamingo block right on top. Love. Debbie did good!

Grandmother's Choice (2/3 blocks) - redid the second block and it's better. Points aren't perfect, but better. I paper pieced it and redrafted it without Y-seams. 

No Progress:

LQS Saturday Sampler 2011 (12/12 & center)

Chunky Log Cabin (13/20 blocks)

St. Paul's Cross (2/42? blocks)

Fat Quarter Stars (7/? blocks)

Boardwalk (5/? blocks)

LQS Saturday Sampler 2012 (21/36 blocks) 

Quilting/Basted: 

Bad Romance

Fall-gyle

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Adoption:

Application Submitted - 2/12 

Home Study - approved 5/12

USCIS paperwork - mailed 6/12
Home Study to Korea - 6/12
Referral Accepted - 6/12

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 11 

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Weekly Progress - Block Party

I am still in the middle of a large t-shirt quilt project, so my normal sewing was limited to random blocks, even though I spent plenty of time at the machine this week. {And plenty of seam-ripping time. Sigh.}

Fifteen Minute Challenge

I did my fifteen minutes of pressing three times this week! Which doesn't make for much progress. I did graduate to a larger box, though, so I'm getting there.

Design Wall

 
All the four-patches are up, and the pinwheels are starting to fill in. I actually have a pile of them to press and trim...I just don't want to!

Progress:

 {Rob Peter to Pay Paul - which I thought was a curved block?}
{Windblown Star - which I really wanted to like, but I killed the points on every single flying goose}

LQS Saturday Sampler 2012 (21/36 blocks)

Boardwalk - five blocks done!

Fat Quarter Stars (7/? blocks) - I always intended to mix blocks from my 2011 Shop Hop Sampler with the Fat Quarter Stars. So I finally sat down, looked through the patterns, and did!

A few of them need to be re-drafted to the proper size, and a few won't work at all, but this 12" log cabin star was the perfect restarting point.

 
Grandmother's Choice (1/2 blocks) - block one, I loooooooove. Block two, I haaaaaaaate. I'm going to try paper piecing it, with different color selections, because it came out so very bad.

No Progress:

LQS Saturday Sampler 2011 (12/12 & center)

Chunky Log Cabin (13/20 blocks)

St. Paul's Cross (2/42? blocks)

Quilting/Basted: 

Bad Romance

Fall-gyle

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Adoption:

Application Submitted - 2/12 

Home Study - approved 5/12

USCIS paperwork - mailed 6/12
Home Study to Korea - 6/12
Referral Accepted - 6/12

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 11 

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced