Quilts from Tee Shirts....

I thought maybe you might like to see a quilt made from Tee Shirts...Concert Tee shirts!  This was my first Tee shirt quilt.  It was a challenge by a friend . She was moving to Texas and decided to leave the shirts for me to make a quilt out of them...So I did. Needless to say...I learned ALOT...about what  to do and what not to do when making a Tee shirt quilt... but it was fun.  I mail the Quilt to her last week and she got it...so now I can put it on the blog and will not spoil the surprise.  She loved it!

During the quilting process with Lucy!

Used Sheet music fabric for the around each block...

"The Boss"

After it was quilted.

Not quite a queen size

 Cate has seen many awesome concerts in her life time.  Bruce, the Boss,  Bon Jovi, the Stones, the Who, Peter Gabriel, U2...oh my goodness...I would love to have seen these concerts...Looking at the quilt will give her great memories everyday and it ought to keep her warm during the cool Texas winter months!

Lots of memories...

After completing the quilt top, I visited a local quilt shop in Barrington, Illinois.   From across the room, a close friend called out to me from a bolt of fabric.  His name was Cody.  Cody was a Border Collie who was Cate's best friend in the world!  It was because of Cody that she and I met years ago.  This bolt of fabric made the perfect back for Cate's quilt. 

When she moved to our neighborhood, she and Cody walked every day to the park down the street from my house.  One day we lost a big tree in our front yard and a short while later Cate and Cody came walking by.  As I stood looking at the mess in my front yard, Cody scampered up to me as if he had known me for all his life!  And from that day until the day he died, Cody repeated this routine hundreds of times with the same enthusiasm and love!  He loved my bridge, he loved my porch, and he loved me...I knew I was a second choice for Cody but he made me feel so special.  The simple unconditional love of a dog!  There is nothing more special than that! 

So this quilt is called "Cate' s True Loves" after her favorite music and Cody, her dog. 

Happy Quilting!

Love,  Jan

Quilting summer fun with Lucy..

This summer I did some quilting for my Neice.  She had some sweet quilts that she let me practice on and they were so much fun!  The first one is a 3D flower of sorts... It was adorable!

Sweet little 30 X 30 wall hanging

Up close of the flower block

From the back on the Flower Wall hanging.

 The second one was  was a cute Dick and Jane fabric that I remember in the fabric shops some time ago.  She made a really cute lap quilt out of it! 

Dick and Jane Quilt

Close up of Quilting..

From the back.

Both of these little quilts were so much fun to do.

Happy Quilting!

Jan

Quilting...last week...

Last week I did a bit of quilting....I have been so busy with redecorating and getting the house ready to sell...That I have had little time for sewing... $#@*& (  So rather as a protest, I got this little piece out that I needed to quilt for my niece...and I quilted it. It was fun!

So here are a few pictures for you to enjoy...

Cute colors and she did a great job of piecing...Have one for my Brother-in-law to put on later this week.  Will finish the nieces wall hangings after I return from vacation.  I have two Tee shirt quilts I need to make and Quilt in July as well.

The projects on the house are coming along.  Greg is just about done with a really nice one which I will show you in a few days.  I am still painting...I temporarily suspended that job when the weather got nice and the flower beds began to call me.  I have weeded all the beds at least once...(some twice) except my little forest area to the north of the house...As soon as we get a good rain, I need to get over there and get it weeded...Oh and I need to finish small garden area next to the pool...it is rock hard.  I worked on it last week after I watered it..I may need to water it some more in order to finish it..

I have all the pots planted with flowers or veggies including some lettuce, beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes.  All are sprouting and life it good. I'll show you the potato tower I constructed in the next post.

Until then... enjoy!

Love, Jan 

Different month...different room

I cannot believe that a month has gone by since I posted here last...My intention was to post the next episode right away...but...Our next remodeling project became the kitchen.  It really was only weeks between these two projects but spring has arrived and so has all the usual spring activities.

Greg and I began the work on the Kitchen shorty BEFORE the arrival of my siblings for their annual March visit.  They decided that they wanted to help us do some remodeling and I will not turn down an offer of help....so Pam, Sharon, Michael, Sue and Bob arrived on Thursday and we gave them paint and brushes and we worked! The boys had a pretty big job to do in the kitchen, replace the counter tops.   

Greg and I had already done some major demolition of the old ZBrick backsplash.  If you don't know what ZBrick is...you don't want to and you are a youngster!  Greg and I moved a cabinet up and installed a new over the range microwave before the siblings got here.

Notice the white brick back splash...this is a before demolition photo...but after installing Microwave.

And now you have an after we did the tile work.  What do you think?  We are please with the end result and we hope you like it too..Here are a couple more before and after photos

This is an in-progress picture with the upper cabinet removed before we installed the new Microwave

 And this is the after....

Range/ Oven  corner completed

This is a pretty messy  in-progress photo.  It is a difficult task to try to cook in a kitchen while you are in the middle of a remodel.  And some nights, I said "to heck with it and we ate out!!" Greg has the ceiling just about painted and I have to do the walls above the upper cabinets yet.  The white stuff draped on the cabinets are drop clothes that we would drape over the upper cabinets to try to control the paint mess.  Greg is a more careful painter than I am.

As you can see, we still have a Microwave sitting on the counter which took up way too much space.  So that is why we decided to mount one over the range.  The rest of the "stuff" that you see on the counters is from inside the cabinet which we have off the wall so we can mount the new Microwave to it.  And I believe this is about the time in the project when we decided that the back splash would have to come off.  We had initially been told to leave it and put the mortar and tile over it!

Dishwasher and Refrigerator Corner.

 And this is the after!

Later, Jan

 

Using different tools...

It has really been a while since I wrote anything for my blogs but it is because I have been so busy DOING other stuff...Some really creative other stuff to... I am due for a sew day though. My machines are calling me.

I have been using different tools these days. Paint brushes, trowels, sponges and masking tape....Some times a screw driver, drill and an occasional power tool!!!! We are transforming some of the rooms in our 110 year old house into nicely remodel rooms.  We are hoping that we can sell it this summer to a family who can fill it up! So would you like to see what we have been doing?

So lets have a look at the first project. It was the walk in pantry.  It is a nice walk in Pantry which had out dated wallpaper and it needed a nice new coat of paint.   I emptied most of the pantry into the dining room to give me room to work. It is not so easy to live in a house during big remodeling projects.  And you sure can not clean...There just seems to be stuff everywhere.

Pantry in the dining room

After emptying the pantry we filled a few holes and I began to paint.

Painting woodwork

I am painting the doors for the upper cabinets and have painted to woodwork and around the window and around the floor and ceiling.   Greg painted the ceiling for me. This room had a lot of hand work that needed to be done...Not many big wall that you can use rollers on.

Starting the walls  - woodwork done.

It took me the better part of a week but it finally got done.

 

We added some free standing shelves for extra storage.  This project including painting and adding additional shelving after we removed an old built-in desk which did not utilize the space in the pantry very well. While I had everything out of the pantry, I did at a coat of Polyurethane on the floors which added three days to our completion time.

This is the first of several projects that we are working to complete.   Stay tuned and I'll show you the other exciting projects that we have been working on.

Love, Jan

Quilting - Audrey style

Today, I am going to highlight the photos that I have of quilts made by my Mother-in-law.  Her birthday was yesterday and since she died in October...I am pausing to remember her today.  She was a very talented quilter and I think of her often as I sit at my sewing machine working on my latest quilt project.

Audrey working on a Charity Quilt in 1996

Audrey and Jennifer with Jennifer's Quilt in 1988

Brittany sitting on Greg's Quilt made by Audry. Photo was taken in 1997.

Quilt made by Audrey in 2002.

Audrey quilt made in 1998.

Audrey worked actively with other church member on quilts which were later sold at auction at Prairie View,  a church based retirement home in Danforth, Illinois.  She made quilts for her son's and their families.  She taught many people to quilt and sew.

I hope you enjoy her work as much as we do.

Happy Sewing,  Jan

Cute Burpers

I thought I would show you these cute little baby burpers I make.  Have made them on and off for years for baby gifts.  When my kids were babies we used cloth diapers. If the baby was not wearing the diaper  then it was a qualified burp rag!  Cloth diaper were too wide so if the baby got a bit excited and kicked up a fuss the diaper got all bunched up underneath them. Do you remember?  The diapers were a bit  too short, it just cover you on the shoulder and chest..  It left your back a bit of a good target….. So I  thought that there had to be a better way.

So they are hour glass shaped with a narrow middle to fit on Mommy or Daddy’s shoulder better. I make them longer for great coverage on the chest and down the back for those occasions when the baby’s burp is more of an urp…

I use nice soft flannel and quilt batting in between. I usually use different colors of flannel on each side so they are reversible . They are cute as a button and all the Mom’s who have them love them..

 

 As you can see these are all for little girls and they are adorable. Hope you enjoy them!  
 
Happy Sewing! 
 
Jan