Recovery

Each new year seems a little more difficult to ease into...
routines...journeys...changes...regroup and begin again.
The last two months of every year are the most time
consuming at my job...everything has to revolve around
the difficult time schedule and the changes in eating,
sleeping and creating! My children always had the worst
Christmas season just because mom was not able to eat,
sleep and participate...it became a way to make thanksgiving
more important and i believe that was a good thing.

Getting back to creating as i enjoy is taking longer each
year...recoup time! But a new grandson this last year needing
a quilt...pushed me to this...

I love bold colors especially for children...and this grouping
really spoke to me. The fun monkeys and bugs just made
for a really nice boys drag-a-round size quilt. My biggest
thing is to build the design around tradition type styles but
i don't usually use a pattern...just an idea.

The quilts usually
go along pretty good until i have to build the final by adding
and adding to the separate groups i have created...and most
of the time that means a couple of trips back to the fabric store
to supplement the stash.


Most of the blocks were similar so i started turning them..
realizing that the quilt was not to be displayed but played
with and used from every side - there would not be a
directional quality to the quilt.



Needed to have his name and date on it so i embroidered it
simply using floss...something that would last during washings....
The quilt turned out to be exactly what i wanted...I machine
quilted from the front around the blocks...trying to keep the
areas blocked and stable...maybe should have been more
but really haven't been able to keep at it long enough
to heavily quilt.
When Kobe was born we decided to use polka dots for the
majority of his blankets, bedding, burp cloths and the
backing of the quilt kept the theme going...just used a
bit on the front to complete the panels. The edging was
just plain cotton bias from the store...in a deep brown.

The overall effect was playful and colorful...I like it and so
did Kobe and his family.

T-Shirts!!!

When clearing my room and redoing it for use - stashes
of items i had saved for "possiblilities" came into view.
Wow! T-shirts!
As a family we used them as everyday wear - two sons,
one daughter, four athletics, lawn mowing husband
and my dirty part time job - we had collected an
abundance of T-shirts....and worn them to soft, full of
holes soon to be rags. Our rag bags were abundant so
I decided to reuse these in a creative way.
First i saved them by throwing them in a large garbage
bag...after collecting 3 large garbage bags and moving
them from place to place to place i had to come up with
a better way. At the same time i had to justify why i
even needed to save them.
If i could create some neat looking storage for a t-shirt
that could be visible, useful, and ready to use that would
be perfect...so i set out to cut up the shirts...


First lay out the shirt on a flat surface...hold at tail of
shirt to get the front and back as close to even as possible.
Remember these shirts are well-worn and stretched out...
nothing will be absolutely perfect on this...think recycle!
Get a really really good pair of scissors...my gingher are
great but as i get older the fiskars softouch with the spring is
way worth the money!

Try to have as few wrinkles in the back as possible and
the sleeves flat also. Turn the shirt so you are at the side
of the shirt.


Make your first cut along the bottom hem...determining if
you will actually use it will come later...if it is really thick
i have opened the hem up and cut through it. If you don't
want the hem area...cut it off and start with the bottom of
the shirt.

The size of the strips will be a healthy 1 1/2 inch...approximate
this and it will vary as you go - you do not need a ruler.
If there are holes it is okay...try to use them or include
them in your strip.
Cut your strip ALMOST to the other side...DO NOT CUT
off the strip....leave about 2 inches along the far side of the
t-shirt.
Move all the way up the shirt toward the sleeves...and keep
in mind you need to include a joined area from front to
back of the t-shirt.




I try to use as much of the shirt as
possible and it is possible to use every inch including the
neck but sometimes you might want to skip that heavy
section...as i have in the photos.
Once you have the shirt in strips, bunch them and move
the shirt so you have the attached side close to you...



Open the hem area (VERY IMPORTANT) make a cut across
the bottom of one strip AFTER the jointed area.


If you
open this up and have done it correct then you should have
a strip still attached to the bottom of your shirt.



On my shirt you can see pen marks as to the 2nd and 3rd
cut...you are making one long strip of fabric...as you cut up
the shirt.






Continue to cut as you move and layout the remainder of the
shirt...you can stop at any point and use the last bits for rags!


Now is the time to recruit help...I cut the shirts and then give
the pile to my husband...as he watches baseball he can roll
the entire pile into a neat and colorful ball...if at some point
the strip is cut you can tie or loop them together.



The inside part of the rolled fabric
does not have to be perfect but as i approach the end of my
strip i try to even out the strips and smooth out the ball of
fabric because i display them in a basket!

I love balls of torn
fabric, beans, noodles, twine, on display...in a tray or basket.
When i am ready to make a rug or pot holder or trivet the
material is ready...the color is seen....i grab what i need and
I create!

I have a store on Etsy.com and have created some Southern
Lady Toe Rugs from t-shirts....very simple but it is also useful
for home or office use. If you do not have time or t-shirts and
want to visit my store please do...you will love the Toe Rugs...
(http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5303773)
from the creating Lady Under the Oaks!

Summer Project

A trip to grandma and grandpa's house should always
include some really neat project that mom or dad would
never think of completing!

Since we like to pick up things that others discard. I had
found this chair on the side of the road. It was water
stained grey and the legs needed to be cut to get rid
of wear and rot.

The first day we painted it white (any light tinted color
would do) and let it dry in the sun...didn't get a photo
of that...used a water-based paint because I get it all
over me and knew my grand-daughter would also!

After it dried I dug out my collection of acrylic paints from
over the years and we tested them out on the chair.
A nice subtle paint job would never do and so we decided
not to paint anything the same color and switched them
from side to front to inside to back! It was great...at least
grandma had a good time...i think Sajarie did also!



The seat had a really neat pattern (it did not show up till we
put the white paint on) so we decided to paint each
section its own color and the pattern also included circles
between each square so of course that too was different.
And grandma did not worry about overlaps or paint going in
different areas...we just played and enjoyed ourselves.


I think now i might put a thin line of black around the different
squares of the seat and maybe more design on each color or
section of the chair for interest! Why not! This is really a fun
project and it is all imagination!



Cutting the legs a little made the chair friendlier to the short legs of a
child. This is definitely a work in progress - updates as we moved along.

Major Accomplishment

Close friends of our family had the weddings of their two
daughters in the same year and two years later had three
grandchildren within two months....one set of twins and
a cousin...whew! All i had to do was think of a quilt...
my biggest thought was how active the families were
and to have a quilt that could be used and used and
washed over and over and still hold up. I had purchased
a lot of fish print material and had also found quite a bit
of batik with the bright and durable colors that appealed
to children...so i came up with this trio.


Jackson Anthony's quilt had to be a little masculine yet
tie in to his sister's and also his cousin..I had to include
a touch of pink plaid. I also attempted a wak-n-stack block
along one edge but ran out of patience. The back is a
majority of the dark blue fish batik with some of the light
blue frogs...this is really a lot of little boy friendly prints and
colors...very pleased with how it looked.
SusieQ's Quilts quilted it in a varigated thread overall pattern.





Monroe Paisley's quilt had to include some of her twin brother's
colors and also her cousin Savannah. Her quilt was still feminine
and bright and quilted in a sturdy overall pattern by SusieQ's Quilts.





Savannah Lynn's quilt had to include some of each of her
cousins...so i put in the dark batik and some of the fish green
and yellow of Jackson's and Monroe's. Her backing stayed
true to pink and bright...The overall quilting done by SusieQ's
Quilts made this a good sturdy drag-a-round quilt for Savannah
to grow up with.








Having tried to take photos of the quilts i have made in the
past i wanted to find a new way that worked...If i remember
to take photos they usually have been too dark..or blurry.
I thought a natural setting would set these three off nicely
so i went outdoors. I have an old stretcher quilt frame that
is set up with "c" clamps so i pinned the quilt to the board(it's
wrapped with fabric) and hung the board with fishing line to
an oak limb. There was a breeze blowing so the quilts took
off flying and then i also remembered the background and
had to move around to exclude distractions. Here are
examples of the problems.

Busy Busy Busy

Trying to decide what projects need the most attention the fastest!




Here is one that will have to wait a little longer...
I have finished the top and have enough
to complete the backing with some leftover squares and
pieces along with large piece of black...
This is a kit i bought and thought it would be fun to do....
i really like plaids.
Difficult to sew on flannel when it is 100% humidity and
over 90 outside.


Now this has become a favorite project....
Since my husband loves to fish and we do try to go out
as much as possible...
even vacationing in the Keys...fishing down there in the clear,
clean waters is really fun. (i have to see land at all times though)
Anyway it was hard to judge the size of the catch by the fillet
after cleaning and the fish tales were stretching past the
limit of belief....so i started keeping record!
Of course this time my fish was the biggest and i really took
care to get a copy of it. This guy was big...and i have a print to prove it.
(more about the finished idea)