Family photos, minus Sherry, by Tara Mansius Photography

 

Behind the scenes...mayhem of laughter!

We do miss our missionary

Thank you again, Tara!  If you love her work, you can find here here.  She has very reasonable pricing!

Tee Shirt Quilt

So a couple of years ago, Sherry went off to college, leaving all her many high school tee shirts she earned from her zillion activities behind.  She wanted her mom to make her a tee shirt quilt, but her mom was busy working full time to help pay for her college and her brother's mission.  One day Sherry got a boyfriend, who's mom loved him SO much that she made all of HIS high school shirts into a quilt.  Sherry called her mom and told her this and reminded her mom that she really wanted one, too.  So mom finally started the project, after finding a book at her workplace Connecting Threads, and choosing tee shirts that coordinated well.  In fact there were only a couple she had to leave behind because they were the wrong colors. 

First, I cut them all to size.  I did them big to keep as much of each logo as possible.  Some had things on the back, so I fused them to the blocks to include them in the quilt. I had to interface each square to keep it from stretching.  Next time I will apply the interfacing, then cut out the squares so I don't end up with a little bit of stretchy on the edges as I sew.  Then I organized the blocks so the colors were dispersed pretty evenly.

I then sewed the blocks into strips and sewed the strips together. It wasn't quilted yet at Christmastime yet, so she got the top in her box for Christmas. She was super excited!

 

I laid out the backing, taped it down to the floor, and sprayed washable (it washed out) fabric adhesive on the backing.

I look so lovely when sweating from working hard to get a quilt top ready to quilt!

 

Since she attends college in Utah where it's very cold, I used a medium weight cotton batting.

Before trimming and pinning

Pinned & ready to quilt!

It was finished before she left for school, and kept her nice and toasty in her cold apartment all winter long.  Now it is sitting here at home waiting for her while she is on her mission!