American Flag Shirt Quilt

I started this quilt with my Guild group, way back in June or July. It’s a copy of one I saw on Jo’s Country Junction. We all collected shirts and cut them and sewed them.  The hope was to make a few quilts for Quilts of Valor and a few quilts for a few of us.  

The realization though, was that this was a lot of work!! I probably bought 20 shirts and others bought 20 more!  I know as of now we have completed 4 tops and are piecing 1 more.  Then started scrapping some of the leftovers to make what I hope is a few smaller nursing home quilts. 

Honestly, this quilt to make with shirts, takes a large variety of shirts and lots of cutting.  We did figure out early how to chain piece most of the blocks.  100s later, I am tired of them! 

This quilt is a really big quilt and takes over 250 of these little block sets.  That’s over 1000 pieces in total.  Sadly, we made a big mistake and did not realize in the beginning that the whites were directional or that the white stripes really needed to read as white.  So we had to buy and cut up a few more shirts!! 

Then it honestly takes a full day of seeing to lay out, piece and quilt this top. As in probably a full 12 hours. 

I used my new Sashiko machine to quilt the top. The machine mimics hand quilting.  I did one set of stitches down each row.  I originally thought I was going to do white stitches. But then there was red thread in the bobbin.  I decided I really liked it! So I finished out all the stitching in red! Love it! 

For the binding, I used some woven cotton.  This helped with the flow of matching the binding with the shirts in the top. Strategically planning where the red and blue was located on the quilt. This is my first time doing a split binding to match color sections on a quilt! It made me love it a little more!! 

Of course I am on the right track again with labeling all my quilts!! Love these sweetwater labels.  I may have to start writing the year on them! 

I usually don’t keep many of my own quilts. Truly, I give away about everything I make.  But I decided it’s time to decorate my house abd use some of them myself.  This year, I have kept more quilts instead of giving them all away!! 

So this is another Luthridge finish!! Now to get motivated at home!!

I thought this was the perfect cotton field quilt. The crips of America, picked blossom by blossom to firm our country. The shirts worn by the hard working men of our country!  I am so proud of the work of the men of the past! And I love the crops that built our land! 

Scrap strings With that odd color.

Yep, I said odd color.  Not my usual background color. Really going out of the box with this.  But it was a friends scraps.  They were free, so I went with it. 

This honestly started as a crazy batch of strings that I sewed up over the last year.  I randomly sewed them and squared them up into 8 inch squares.  Then they kept multiplying and sat in a bin for the last year. 

Well, I set a date last week to finish. I jumped in my big scrap bin to find a background.  What did I find but these already cut 8 inch squares!! A friend doesn’t do scraps, so of course I took them!! 

 I had to add a few pieces of  another Aqua fabric that kinda matched it was all the cut off backing from another quilt.  It was a little interesting cutting all the pieces from scraps, but it worked.

Then the backing some of the last fabric another friend gave me. Doesn’t match, but my goal is sooo getting rid of stuff.  The label from my growing collection!! 

So excited to finish another quilt out of a pile of scraps.  I just have too much more to do!! On to next months challenge! 

Scrappy Timber Trees

It’s another finish, just in time to enter the Persimmon dreams, monthly Scrap Quilt Challenge!! The June theme, was trees!!  This quilt is like usual, a design of  my own! 

This quilt top is made completely out of scraps!! All of the triangles are cut offs from multiple things, but mostly binding.  They are seen together using a flip and stitch method then squaring up. 

Each tree triangle section ranges from 1 inch to 3 inches high, by 3.5 to 4.5 inches wide. The trunks are honestly about the same dimensions. 

The trees each have 5 sections and each row is 5 trees wide! I kinda love the odd number in most things.  The rows are stacked from the shortest tree to the tallest tree. I then added a section to even each row out to match the tallest tree. 

The quilt seemed to need something else.  So the star was introduced. Honestly they added width to the quilt and the perfect finishing touch!! The star centers are 3. 5 inch squares. The points are also made with the flip method. 

The rows were then trimmed for all to have matching widths.  To finish it off, I added a 2 inch strip of white to the top and bottom. 

I quilted it with grass like rows across the bottom of all the trees.  Then swirls around each tree. 

The binding, is made out of leftover binding pieces from other quilts. 

Then there is this cute little tag!! It was part of my Christmas collection.  It matched perfectly!! 

Then look at this cute family of bassets!! On some if our recently cut trees! 

May Finishes

I did not hit my May Goals, but I sure did get a bunch done!! Most of my May sewing Occurred at the Quilters Of SC Spring Retreat at Camp Kinard. 4 nights away with lots of Sewing!! 

Sooo excited to get away and sew!! I finished my Guilds Quilt Block for the month! 

The Harvest Road top.  Excited to really finish this one, as it will go in my spare bedroom! 

Then another leader and Ender brick block quilt. 

I sandwiched these 3 sister quilts from last months retreat.  Then I quilted and bond them this week to finish!! 

Then I finished the top for the tree block challenge!! 

June Goals—-

So I did not meet my block goals for last months Sewcialites.  That means I am further behind, so this month, that is one of my top Goals.  The last blocks come out this month, so I want to try and catch up and finish! 

My others goals are to finish the tree top to enter into this months challenge.  Work on the string blocks for next month and to finish some pillow covers for a paid job I took.  If I do all of that, then I can start on a patriotic quilt I really want to do!! 

Goals of 2021!!——

1- House quilt- lots of pieces and few rows. Finished!!

2- Small old antique embroidery quilt- only the original blob lock and fabric pulled.  Plan to box the blocks in, maybe like a log cabin. FINISHED!!!!!

3-Harvest Road Quilt- blocks cut, a few pieces sewn together Top finished, needs borders

4-Debbie row by row- omg, so much to do

5-Rooster on board- one section done.  I think this will be a retreat quilt for this year

6- Pumpkin quilt-  fabrics pulled and all in a box

7- Pineapple place mat- needs to be put together and quilted

8- Jelly roll quilt-  undid it for a race demo in class.  Sewed a few corners and now it’s sittin a box. 

9- Moma quilt- I need to make several of these, but for 2 years,  I’ve had fabric pulled for at least one and sitting in a box. 

10- Sunflower quilt- made with my friends daughters clothes for her kids finished

11- Sunflower 2- same as above finished 

12-Sunflower 3- yep, same finished

13- Bow tie quilt-  I cut a bunch of scrap squared to make this and never did it. 

14- Bea Lea Jumbled Sampler-  Accuquilt quilt fit the year

15- Sewcialites- 17 blocks out of 36 blocks done

16- Ultimate beginner Sampler- FINISHED 

17- T quilt from years ago-  at least 2 blocks done.

18- Stained glass window-  lots of blocks done years old

19- animal embroidery-  needs just a few blocks. 

20- Kaffe embroidery quilt- needs borders.  Top done,  at least 2 years old

21- Yenter embroidery-  needs a few blocks finished

22- batik embroidery-  needs a few blocks finished

23- crown of thorns.  Has a few blocks cut out. Several sewn together 

24- Tree quilt- not started  Top Finished!!! 

25- Scrap log cabin quilt- not started

26- Selvedge aqua quilt-  some selvedge blocks done

27- string block quilt-  random sized string blocks 

28- pineapple sampler quilt- 3 blocks started. 

29- batik HST quilt- lesson from class

30- persimmon dreams block of the month

31- Pat Sloan star quilt

New 2021 desires- 

1- Liberty box quilt

2- cider quilt

3- pine cone quilt

4- chicken quilt

5- bee fabric quilt 

Sewcialites Catch Up!!!

Last year I challenged the ladies in my guild to help keep me accountable to finish this 36 week plus long quilt along.  Besides a paper piecing program, my longest ever! Well, way back in September we started, and by block 12, I was distracted. Here in April, I put myself back on the rocker! 

I was able to finish block 24, 26, 27, and 28 all in the last week.  

Now I am challenging myself to get 8 blocks done in May! That will leave me 9 blocks to catch up, with 5 weeks left in the sew along.  

So cheer me on and maybe I can get there.  I am truly trying to make this the year of finishes and scrap clean out!! 

And here’s Annie with her head stuck in the gate!! 

April Finishes

I was pretty busy this month between working on the house, work and a quilt retreat!  But, in normal fashion, I was able to get some things done!! 

I went to a quilt retreat at Lutheridge early in the month.  I walked out of the door with this pile of jeans quilt.  It’s huge! I finished it!! 

Before I left,  I quilted this quilt from a Jittery Wings pattern I did.  Then I finished the binding before leaving! 

Then last week I finished this simple but adorable Paddington Bear Quilt. 

After that I finished a few more quilt blocks for the Sewcialites quilt.  

Next month,  I already have sooo many Goals.  I finished 3 T-shirt quilt tops at my retreat.  My goal is to sandwich and quilt them this weekend,  then bind them next week.  After that, I have a star quilt to finish by the 15th.  Followed by another quilt retreat that I am praying will be an awesome finishing event!!

Goals of 2021!!——

1- House quilt- lots of pieces and few rows. Finished!!

2- Small old antique embroidery quilt- only the original blob lock and fabric pulled.  Plan to box the blocks in, maybe like a log cabin. FINISHED!!!!!

3-Harvest Road Quilt- blocks cut, a few pieces sewn together 

4-Debbie row by row- omg, so much to do

5-Rooster on board- one section done.  I think this will be a retreat quilt for this year

6- Pumpkin quilt-  fabrics pulled and all in a box

7- Pineapple place mat- needs to be put together and quilted

8- Jelly roll quilt-  undid it for a race demo in class.  Sewed a few corners and now it’s sittin a box. 

9- Moma quilt- I need to make several of these, but for 2 years,  I’ve had fabric pulled for at least one and sitting in a box. 

10- Sunflower quilt- made with my friends daughters clothes for her kids top finished

11- Sunflower 2- same as above top finished 

12-Sunflower 3- yep, same top finished

13- Bow tie quilt-  I cut a bunch of scrap squared to make this and never did it. 

14- Bea Lea Jumbled Sampler-  Accuquilt quilt fit the year

15- Sewcialites- 16 blocks out of 36 blocks done

16- Ultimate beginner Sampler- FINISHED 

17- T quilt from years ago-  at least 2 blocks done.

18- Stained glass window-  lots of blocks done years old

19- animal embroidery-  needs just a few blocks. 

20- Kaffe embroidery quilt- needs borders.  Top done,  at least 2 years old

21- Yenter embroidery-  needs a few blocks finished

22- batik embroidery-  needs a few blocks finished

23- crown of thorns.  Has a few blocks cut out. Several sewn together 

24- Tree quilt- not started  sewed a few blocks 

25- Scrap log cabin quilt- not started

26- Selvedge aqua quilt-  some selvedge blocks done

27- string block quilt-  random sized string blocks 

28- pineapple sampler quilt- 3 blocks started. 

29- batik HST quilt- lesson from class

30- persimmon dreams block of the month

31- Pat Sloan star quilt