Upcycled Nightshirt to Infinity Scarf

My friend has been upcycling thrift store men’s shirts.  I think they look quite fun.  But I don’t want to make them.  She shared an infinity scarf she made from men’s shirts.  That item caught my attention.  

I always have a Goodwill bag going.  I had a new nice warm flannel nightshirt that was accidentally put into the dryer after washing.  So I wasn’t going to be wearing it anymore.  It went into the Goodwill bag.  When I saw my friend’s upcycled infinity scarf, I thought about that nightshirt and what a nice warm scarf it might make into.  Out of the bag it came!

I cut two useable pieces from the nightshirt.  Then stitched the buttoned front placket closed and moved the label from inside the collar to the back yoke above the pleat.  I left the pocket alone.  I can hide something in there.  I stitched these two pieces together end to end to make a full circle.

Here you can see the pocket.  I also cut the cuff off one sleeve.  It can be buttoned around the scarf any way and where desired.  It also slides around...it is not sewn down.

The placket, back pleat and label shown here.

Just before turning the scarf right side out, I saw where I had accidentally snipped part of one layer.  Aaargh!  I had to unstitch some of the serging to make the repair.

I cut off the buttons section of the other cuff and sewed it over the snipped section.

My apologies to someone who is NOT going to get a new flannel nightshirt at a steal of a price from Goodwill, because that nightshirt is going to be keeping my neck warm this winter.

Thank you Leslie for your awesome infinity scarf inspiration!  I’ll be keeping an eye out for other desirable upcycled clothing ideas.

Candy Wrapper Pouch

I just made this sweet little candy wrapper zip pouch!

What fun!

Yes, eating the candy AND sewing the pouch.

These wrappers are from the giant bars.  So finished, the pouch measures 4” X 7.5”

I didn’t choose very exciting lining or a bright zipper.  I just wanted to use a piece of fabric that was never getting chosen for anything.  Just in case the whole thing was a fail.

I couldn’t be more pleased.  I must make more.  Oh gee, I’ll have to eat more candy.  Isn’t that a shame!  :-)

I used this tutorial to make this pouch:

https://www.punkinpatterns.com/blog/2011/03/sweet-tooth-pouch.html

Halloween Postcard Greetings

A few more Halloween greetings mailed out...

A Raven at Halloween is always a favorite.  I have a kinship with him for shiny things.

A black cat.

Glow-In-The-Dark Skulls!  From fabric leftovers of another make.

Here they are, glowing in the dark.  Of course they glow way better in real life.  

Take them to your bedroom at night.  They will watch over you while you sleep.  

Isn’t that a creepy thought!

**insert Vincent Price’s laughter**

Glow-In-The-Dark Pillows

Creepy good glow-in-the-dark pillows for my grown grandchildren.

There’s no such thing as too old for glow-in-the-dark, right?!

20” pillows accented with their favorite color.

And my favorite black & white stripe binding.

I tried getting a “glowing” photo.  Didn’t photograph well but they glow really well. Even the bones fabric is a glow-in-the-dark.
They aren’t Halloween gifts.  These kids like this creepy fun stuff all year long.  It must run in the family...it was hard to mail them away.

Happy season of frightfulness!

Be My Valentine Quilt

My third unfinished quilt is FINISHED!

Be My Valentine

This quilt got its start in 2016.

I paper pieced the hearts from a pattern I drew myself.  A heart paper piece pattern is not hard to draw at all.

I lay thin sheet boards on my bed for pin basting.  I have one full size sheet that is 4’ X 80” (because I have low ceilings upstairs).  I have an extension sheet that is 30” X 80”.  I used the smaller one for drawing my quilting lines.

When a fabric has a wide flat selvage with printing info on it, I like to make it a part of my quilts.  Just for fun.

This is a smaller quilt that measures 58” X 76”.

I used two of the fabrics for the binding.  They are pretty close in looks, so it isn’t easily noticed.  But I like it.

It feels so good to have all of my unfinished quilts finished.  

I couldn’t wait to start on the next quilt.  I meant to start and finish one.  But I’ve got two new ones going at the same time.  I planned one.  The second came as a request that I don’t want to put off too long.  So I’m just working them both at once.  What a happy quilter I am! :-)

Halloween Quilt #2

This second Halloween quilt began to come to life in December 2015.  I was ready for Christmas early and this Halloween quilt wanted to get started being made.

I wanted to make a Jelly Roll Race quilt.  I began collecting Halloween prints and colors a couple of years earlier to cut my own Jelly Roll.  But as I saw jelly roll race quilts being made, I saw that I wouldn’t be able to control how the colors landed together.  A quilting control freak cannot live with that!  I kept thinking on it and collecting and cutting 2.5” strips of fabrics.  

Finally I hit on this plan of jelly roll race CONTROL.  

I cut the strips into shorter lengths to maximize color EVERYWHERE.

It was fun to get this far, but I began to wonder if it was too wild and out of control.
  

But I kept going and for some reason, stopped taking progress photos.  But I began to like it again when the black end strips were added.  And I liked it even more when the checkerboard pieces began to be added.

Then I had to put it away to move back home.  Back to my teeny tiny sewing space that was not inviting me to come sew in it.  The quilt stayed packed up with the art quilt and another unfinished quilt for a years time.

I finally caught the sewing bug, worked on making my sewing space useable and began a mission to finish quilts.  It was now this quilt’s turn.  The rest of the checkerboard framing went faster than I thought it would.  Soon I was quilting this quilt.

It took me a weeks worth of every free moment to get it quilted.  And I only do straight line quilting.

I couldn’t believe I was finally about to bind this quilt.

I was so glad I chose the green for the binding.

I didn’t even notice the tiny green dots on the backing fabric until I was hand stitching the binding.  What a lucky choice to do green binding.

I still struggle to believe this quilt got finished.  But I love it.  My daughter has already claimed it for herself.  She’s Halloween crazy and color crazy.  I’m thrilled she loves it too.

My photo helpers are a bit on the silly side.

It measures in at 68” X 84”

I did it. I finished it.  I’m still trying to convince myself of that.

And there it goes, off with it’s new owner.

That’s now two of my three unfinished quilts finished!  The third one is being quilted now.  I’m getting pretty excited to start a new fresh quilt and get it from beginning to end.  No more of this UFQ (unfinished quilt) sewing!

It’s time to get your creep on!

Fun Fabric Postcards

I’m so excited to have new fabric postcards to mail out!

I don’t know what I’d do without Pinterest inspiration these days.

I hope this bright cheery flower brings a smile to my recipient’s face, and joyful feelings whenever she looks at it.

 This artsy collage has arrived at it’s destination.  It made it’s own story as I found scrap pieces to create it.

It said to me, which I in turn said to Tera...

And this test design block turned postcard was sent to an acquaintance quilter who could not believe my fabric postcards could go through the mail.

And more to come.

Happy Mail Day!

Art Quilt

My art quilt is finally finished!

I wish I had a plain wall to hang it on.  But, that wallpaper will be gone someday.  Until then, it is what it is.

HOW MY ART QUILT CAME TO BE
It all began sometime in 2012.  Text fabrics were in their early stages of showing up in quilted items.  I immediately was drawn to them (and still am).  But I couldn’t find much locally and online shopping required a minimum of a half yard or more.  I didn’t want that much at the time.  That could quickly add up to big $$ that I didn’t have.  I wanted a largish variety of text prints.

Being a scrapbooker, there was more of an endless array of papers with words on them.  So I ordered several yards of Miracle Fabric.  I began printing my own text fabrics on my printer for a quilt.  Even then I began running out of different text papers.  I didn’t want to keep using the same ones over and over.  I had those four rows done when I decided it was never going to get four more rows.  I set it aside.

I had printed the little girl you see in this section for a postcard.  I printed her twice.  I made the postcard and mailed it.  The extra little girl got pushed around on my table for awhile.  I didn’t want to loose her so I set her on top of this quilt (that was probably never going to get finished).

Well, wasn’t she cute on there.  If I ever get this quilt made, I think I’ll sew her onto it somewhere.  Then I thought, she would need another little friend on it somewhere else.  

I processed that idea for awhile until finally concluding that I was going to switch  my plan from a regular quilt to an art quilt.  And turn it into an ephemera collage art quilt.  It took my little pea brain a long time to figure out how to accomplish this. 

When I got the itch to sew again, I wanted to finish this art quilt first.  I finally figured out how to get to the finished quilt.

I first decided to quilt the blocks before adding the ephemera pieces.

Not all of the blocks are printed miracle fabric.  Some are regular cotton text fabrics.  But the majority are printed on my Epson Ink Jet printer.

With the quilting done, I decided to also bind it before spinning it round and round in my machine appliquéing the ephemera.  There was no need to leave that for last.  Binding it first would save me the trouble of raveling edges during appliquéing.

It was finally time to applique the ephemera!

There are 45 pieces of ephemera printed, backed with Wonder Under, cut out and raw edge appliqued onto the quilt.  I did not make them recently.  They had been pinned to the quilt for all the years it lay dormant.

My daughter looked at this art quilt and said “this is so you”.  And it is.  It’s full of things I like, things I find interesting and things that speak to me.  I have a bicycle postage stamp that I need to print and add to my quilt.  I like that I can continue to add to it if I choose to.

The quilt measures 41” X 55”

I’m really happy to have this quilt finished and I’m really happy with how this art quilt turned out.

It’s a little wavy on the bottom in this photo.  It was hanging oddly on the stick across the top.  It lays nice and straight and flat now that I’ve fixed that little mystery. 

I really love paper collage and I’m really enjoying this fabric collage.

TADA! 

Fabric Boxes and Postcards

While I continue to work on my art quilt, I have stitched up a few quick and easy fabric boxes.

I found the instructions on Pinterest where they are officially referred to as thread catchers.  But I don’t have any threads to catch, so they are boxes to me.  I seem to have a bit of an obsession with tiny boxes.

This next purple one made the perfect tiny thank you gift when I filled it with Lindor chocolates and Starbursts.

I will send this next one off with chocolates also when the weather gets cool enough to not melt the chocolates while traveling.

They are pretty simple and fun to make even with all the hand sewing they require.  I made the first one as instructed.  But I thought it to be a bit flimsy for my liking.  So I added fusible interfacing to one side for the next ones.  Much better!

After attending the Madison, Wisconsin Quilt Show and picking up some new Halloween fabrics (like I needed more), and cute patterns for making postcards, I had to get started on Halloween fabric  postcard greetings.

Such fun.

Now back to my art quilt..........