24 hours of quilting...

Three cheers for Pretty!

Go, Pretty!  Go, Pretty!  

Getcha quilt on!  Go, Pretty!

(dances and shakes pom poms)

Besides finishing the 18th and 19th letters in my Alphabet Soup (R and H), I have been busy with a BIG project for my farming friend.  Her daughter is graduating high school this spring, and she put a shout out for some help in putting together a special piece of home to accompany her as she transitions to college life.  Over the last few weeks, I have put 24 hours into the creation of this keepsake, and I am so happy with how it turned out!  You've seen some of these photos before, but I can't help myself...here they are again:

Just a few "in progress" photos of the process...

As for the specs, I did a lot of research before starting this project.  Several websites into it, I realized that I was going to go my own way in the world of quilting, just as I have always done with yarny projects.  Many of the sites I visited told me the best ways to do everything, and they also told me that some of my plans would simply not work.  Apparently, I just saw that advice as a challenge, because I was able to accomplish just about everything I had originally planned for this T-shirt quilt...and most of my plans worked out just fine...better than fine, even...Excellent!!!

Can barely believe it's finished...Yay!

I am currently researching even more new techniques for my next t-shirt quilt(s)...because I already have collections of Mork's and Snake's shirts a-waiting!  (I am betting that Mindy and Dollface may also be interested.)  

Here's what I learned/remembered with this quilt project:

1. Everything has to be "just right" when fusing interfacing to jersey knit...the temp of the iron, how the shirts are washed and cut, the timing.  Read the directions carefully.
2. Fleece is way stretchier than I think it is.  I mean, it's a knit, so it stretches...but I always forget just how stretchy it is.  Perhaps if I work two or three of these this year, I will remember that the next time I sew with fleece.
3. You can never have too many pins when securing the quilt top to the batting/backing...you may think you have enough, but you'll probably need more.
4. Fleece will work as a backing, and the quilt will be plenty warm even without batting in the middle!  Omitting the batting also makes the finished blanket less bulky and easier to fit in a standard washer and dryer.
5. Fleece will also work as a binding, but it has to be pretty wide, and the mitered corners don't press down and lay nicely without some encouragement.  The finished width of my purple, fleece binding is approximately 3 inches, but it could easily have been wider, and I "encouraged" the corners by tying them together with some embroidery floss in fun colors!
6. Oh, and I still love to sew!  It's been awhile, but I still love it!

I added some fun buttons to the quilt!

Now that the quilt is done, and all the specs are on mysewingcircle.com (I'm PKJewelry there too), I hope to get a couple more letters finished for the soup, and also to work on the baseball sweater...all of a sudden I miss the baseball sweater.  I think I'll go knit for awhile!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!