Pillows anyone

I recently had a lady call and ask if I could make a pillow for her mother who is almost 90 years of age.  She wanted a picture on the pillow.  Well I haven't done a pillow before using the Printed Treasures but I though it really can't be that hard.  Guess what, it wasn't hard at all.

First I will say I love the Printed Treasures, which is Fabric Sheets for Inkjet Printers.  This stuff really works very well!  I've used it on memory quilts many times and they turned out great.  Just had not made a pillow with them before so.....

My customer mailed me a disc with the pictures on the disc and I simply downloaded them into my computer and printed them onto the fabric paper.   Now what could be easier....well easy for someone who has a little bit of knowledge about using a computer.  Now you don't have to have a lot and if you are reading this blog then I bet you have plenty of computer savey to get this done.  It also works very well when you have a copier.  You don't have to have a scanner, or even a computer if you have the picture that has already been printed.  You just copy it onto the fabric sheet with an ink jet copier.

The next step was to add a frame around the picture and the color I used is the color that would match the two different fabrics sent to me by my customer.  Let me back up and tell you that she had fat quarters of 2 different fabrics that she wanted used and we had talked about putting one fabric on one side and the other fabric on the other side. Simple huh!  The fabric I picked for the frame matched up well with both of the pieces the customer had sent. 

In all my purchases for the project were 2 sheets of Printed Treasures fabric paper, which I buy by the pack and get 5 sheets and the last I bought cost $18.99.  I purchased the fabric used to frame the pictures and used a fat quarter for that and also a pillow form (16" x 16") from Hobby Lobby for $8.99.  So basically $8.00 for the picture fabric $3.25 for the fat quarter for the frame with fabric left over, and $9.00 for the pillow form so $20.25 plus tax for a memory pillow and just a little time to sew it all together.

I really hope my customer's mother enjoys her pillow.  They are so simple to make, hummmmm these might be something I could do for Christmas or Birthday presents.  Now if I can catch a sell on these forms or use that 50% off coupon.  There's an ideal for the little ones floor pillows.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and lots of fun sewing and quilting.  See you next week!!

New Tees and things

Well, I've been at it again.  I love to make memory quilts with tees and people's clothes they wore and loved.  I just want to put a little more love in and then it goes to someone who will love it even more because of all the memories.  I typically get calls on the average of once a month asking for a memory quilt to be made and I really love doing them.  Unfortunately it takes me a while to get it all together.  I like to make them different, and use different techniques to make each one a unique work of art that will be cherished for many years to come.  I believe striving to make a very special item for each person is the reason I get so many calls for more.

Here is a quilt I made for a girl and the tee's belonged to her father.  She had many different tee's and all of these things demonstrate that her father loved his outdoor sports activities.  She also brought several shirts that he wore and I have used these to make the stripping between the blocks.  This is a little of the process I go through when making a memory quilt.

First I have to get the logos trimmed out and the fuseable
put on and then lay out the shirts.

This part is actually very time consuming.  Much more so than you may think.  I have to get the shirts laid out on my cutting table and I have to make sure I leave ample room around the outside of the logo for any trimming or squaring.  I also try to make a habit of cutting the logos out using a whole inch measurement.  Whether it's 6 or 14 doesn't matter but I don't want to do any 6 1/2 or 14 1/4.  That just confuses the issue when I start doing the stripping!  This is something I've learned the hard way over time.  After the logos are cut out I have to go the the ironing board to add the fuseable and I do use the woven most of the time.  This just seems to work better as far as I am concerned and there is less stretch.  Next I retrim the logos to remove rough edges,  and then I lay them out to see how it is going to look.




At this point I haven't done anything about the stripping.

Once I've laid the shirts out on the bed in the way I think I want them to go, taking into consideration the size and the colors then I can start thinking about the finish trimming.  This is where I have to make sure that all the shirts in a row are the same width.  If I can trim all the shirts in a row to a particular width, say 12" then I don't have to add any extra strips down the side.  If I can't then I will add a strip of shashing down one side to keep the sizes consistent. 


If you look at the bottom of this picture you will see where I have
added an extra strip of sashing to increase the width of that tee.

After doing the final trimming I can then add my sashing forming rows either vertically or horizonally to put the quilt top together.  Next I will put the finishing trims on the top.  In this case it is logos from hats that have been cut out and are satin stitched down before the quilting is done and then I do the quilting and binding being sure to add a rod pocket at the top because many of these quilts are hung.

These memory quilts are wonderful projects and I love doing them and seeing what new ideals I can come up with to make each quilt a very special one of a kind keepsake.

I hope you all have a great day and decide to one day try your hand at making a memory quilt as a keepsake to remember someone who has passed away, or to commemorate an event, like graduating from high school or college or getting married or having a baby.  Whatever the occasion these quilts are a lot of fun and guaranteed to make you stretch your brain to recall all of that math you had when you were in school!



Picture Transfers

A few years ago the place where I work my regular job had outgrown their space so they decided it was time to step out and build a new building.  In our old space some previous person had hung a tapestry in one of the back hallways.  After she had moved to greener pastures those that remained decided they did not want that particular piece of art to remain and I had a quilt that I brought in and hung in that space.  I would bring different quilts and change them and we had one for Christmas and a different one I made in the spring and so forth.  We had an enormous number of comments on the new and changing art work.  I was asked if I would do a quilt for the new building.  Of course I said yes and I began planning. 

Since they wanted this quilt to be permanent it would need to be something that would be appropriate for any season.  I finally hit on the ideal of making a quilt with baby pictures of all the employees.  Since this is a fairly small office it was a really doable project.  Then I decided that I would make the quilt so it would depict a bookcase with pictures in frames.  I had no pattern.  In addition the decor in the new place would be modern. 

I collected pictures from the staff and was amazed at how quickly people shared their photos.  I did not tell them only baby pictures, but stated pictures when they were very young.  Now for this part I had to know a little about computers because I did scan the pictures in and then changed them all to black and white and also changed the size so they would all be the same size.  (I have made a lot of memory quilts using pictures since that time and they do not all have to be the same size and it is fine to use a mixture of colored pictures and black and white photos.)  Then I printed the pictures onto paper backed fabric.  You can purchase packs of the paper backed fabric, one brand is Printed Treasures and it works very well, or you can make your own.  Directions for making your own will be at the bottom of this post.  Follow directions on whichever brand of printable fabric you  purchase.

Remember, once your pictures are printed onto the fabric you will need to have a seam allowance around each picture.  Make allowances for this before you print!!  I've made the mistake of forgetting to leave enough around the edges of the pictures more than once and had to go back and reprint pictures which can be expensive if you are purchasing the printable fabric.

I agonized over my fabric choices for months.  It is a really good thing that it takes so long for a building to be built in this area, or at least it did at that time.  I finally picked my fabric and got to work on the actual quilt.  I can't begin to tell you how many comments have been made about that quilt since it was hung.  I am always amazed.  I also get a few giggles when someone comes in and says, "Oh, what a pretty blanket!"  I am very proud of my picture quilt that hangs in the office.


The quilt hanging on the wall at our office.  As you can
see I did fix the pictures so it would appear they
were matted and framed. 



This is a close up of one of a couple of the pictures. 
I'm the cutie on the right.  I used to be a pretty girl.
Oh well, times change.

 Of course, I have made other memory quilts since that time using pictures.  This particular quilt was made as a graduation gift and many of the pictures were pictures of the sports she participated in, as well as prom, and baby pictures.  In this quilt I actually would sew pictures side by side and use them as the center block and I even used 3 pictures together in a couple of the blocks.  I did not change the size of the pictures or make them all black and white.  One of the blocks has a picture of her and her graduation from kindergarten and then her graduation from high school.  Made a really nice comparison. 



This snowball pattern really gave this memory quilt a special look.

I also made a memory quilt with pictures using a star pattern and the picture was the center of the stars.  That particular quilt was all about the lady's father and he was a very special star in her life.

Memory quilts using pictures are typically meant to be wall hangings or display pieces.  They will not stand up to frequent laundering.  While they can be washed on gentle cycle in cold water, they are not made to be washed every month.  Quilts can hang as wall hanging for several years before they have to be washed.  You may want to take them down and vacumn the dust off a few times, or just toss them into the dryer with a fabric softener sheet,  if you wait two or three years to launder.

If you have decided to embark on your own journey into a memory quilt and have any questions, please feel free to ask.  I don't have all the answers, but since I've made quite a few I have worked out some of the bugs.   I hope you have a great day.  

To make your own paper backed fabric purchase freezer paper and fabric.  Wash the fabric to remove all sizing that may cause your ink not to adhere to the fabric.  After fabric is dry, press the fabric smooth.  It will need to be very smooth to prevent problems with the printing.  Cut your freezer paper and fabric to 8 1/2" x 11", or whatever size your printer will accomidate.  Place the freezer paper, waxey side up on your ironing board and place your fabric over the freezer paper with wrong side of fabric against the waxey side of the freezer paper.  Using a hot iron press the freezer paper and fabric together.  Do not rub the iron back and forth over the surface of the fabric since this will cause shifting and the fabric will not adhere well.  Make sure all strings are cut so they will not pull or come off in your printer.  Once the fabric is adhered and trimmed it is ready for your printer.

T-Shirt Travels

Notice these tees have been aligned in long rows
(Quilt made by Kay for her daughter, Heather)

T-shirt quilts are wonderful things that hold personal memories galore.  They are loved and appreciated by all who receive them.  They are totally unique.  Usually they usually will evenutally wind up as a display item.  Many are made for young people as they graduate from high school and they get a quilt to take with them to college so it has to be the size of the college dorm bed, which is twin long in most colleges.  After college they will get tossed around some but as time moves on they will become a display piece, either in a bedroom, a guest room, or a home office or even a den or play room.  Now anyone can go online and find a multitude of places that make the quilts for a variety of prices, but being quilters, why should we pay for something we can do ourselves?  Obviously there is no reason if you can get some good instructions on how to accomplish your goal.  Me, I'm really an individual and like unique items, so I'm going for a really cool one of a kind quilt that no one else will have.  I've used many different views in creating some of these "masterpieces" and learned a lot along the way.  Here are some of my ideals and some of the things I've experienced in my t-shirt travels.

Cutting is important.  They must be cut using straight lines and the shirt should be laid out on the cutting board being careful not to stretch the fabric in any direction.  If the shirt has a print on only one side you are good to go, if you plan to use the prints from both sides then first you must carefully cut up both sides of the tee and right on around the bottom seam of the sleeve.  If there is an emblem on the sleeve you want to save then carefully cut around the seam in the sleeve leaving as much fabric as possible to be trimmed away.  I say this for a reason!!!  You want to be able to have pieces that are squares or rectangles.  While you can use triangles it is more difficult and you may not want to do this on your first t-shirt quilt.  After your shirt with the print is positioned on the cutting board, using a square up ruler of some type, cut out the design leaving, if at all possible 2-3" on all sides of the imprint.  This becomes very important later on in the process.  Many quilt makers will decide they are going to use 12 blocks that are 12 1/2" square with sashing between.  If that is your choice then cut your design out of your tee in a 14-15" square trying to center the logo or design as much as possible.  Others may want to make vertical or horizontal rows with sashing between the tees and between the rows.  If you have opted for that course then you will need to carefully watch the length or the width of the pieces you are cutting out.  If you have left some margin for error on your first cut then you will be okay.

After you have cut your tees up then you want to apply either a woven or nonwoven interface to the back to prevent stretching of the fabric as you sew or quilt.  I typically like the woven, iron-on the best for this step.  Be very careful here or you will wind up with some tees that the emblems are smeared or an iron that is no longer useable.  Use a pressing cloth.  Clean white and cheap fits the bill.  If you opt to lay the tee with the emblem facing down on your ironing board and try putting the interfacing on like that you will wind up with ink on your ironing board that will come off on everything you iron unless it wouldn't hurt that item and then miracle of miracles the ink won't transfer!!  I personally prefer to lay my interface with the beaded glue facing up on the ironing board and then lay the section of tee face up on the fusable, place my pressing cloth over that and press the tee only getting as close to the edge as possible without adhereing my pressing cloth to the fusable.    I then line up the next tee as close to the first as possible and sometimes even overlap about 1/4" to have no portion of the fusable uncovered.  I attempt to use as much of the width of the interfacing as possible moving and adjusting pieces to have the smallest amount left to trim away.  Again cover with pressing cloth and adhere to fusable. 

After I have all the tees with fusable I then start trimming.  I attempt to do rows either vertically or horizonally.  I will trim away as little of the excess as possible and start laying out the sizes.  I attempt to cut all widths on the even inch, like 13", 8", 10", 11" and the same with the lengths and then start putting my puzzle together.  If you have only 12 or 16 shirts to work with you are going to have a lot of space without logo's typically.  If you have a larger number of shirts then you will be able to use all the smaller logos to fill in gaps.  Maybe I have one tee with a logo that is 12" x 16" and I want to leave plenty for seams so it is cut at 15" x 20" and then I have a tee with a logo that is 10 1/2" x 3 " and a third tee with a logo  11" x 8".  I can use all of these logos in one row by placing the logo with 11" x 8" and leaving a little extra on each side of the logo to make up the difference or by sewing a strip of sashing and adding an extra 3" on one side.



With the shorter logos you can use 2 or 3 in the space of 1 longer logo.


Next I use the 12" x 16" logo with the extra inch on each side and next in that column would be the 10 1/2" x 3" logo that I have either cut to proper width or added sashing to maybe each side to make it 14" in width.  Now I have the 3 tees that are the proper width I can join them with sashing between and I frequently use different widths on my sashing.  Maybe I'll use 2" between the 1st shirt in the column and 1" between the 2nd and third shirts.  Maybe I have a couple of shirts with very small logos and then I may sew 2 side by side in order to get the width I need and I may even need to use a strip of sashing between them to get the proper width.



Kay did a great job of putting the small logos in the quilt.

I may even need to add a little sashing at the top or bottom of one of those logos.  Does this sound like a puzzle being pieced together?  That is really what it is like.  I really like to lay out all my shirts in a pattern, usually on my bed to get some ideal of how everything will fit and then I go from there with my adding of sashing.  I also use those pictures to refer to as I am sewing the top together.

After the top is sewn together and you start quilting be aware that very few machines will have the capacity to quilt over the thick heavy plastic type ink such as that used in numbers on jerseys, or the very thick ink, and you will wear holes in your fingers trying to hand quilt that particular type tee.  It is much easier to quilt around those areas.

Hope these hints help you as you begin a journey toward making your own tee shirt quilt, or one for your son or daughter.  Just remember to save those tees so you will have lots of choices.  If you have any questions about techniques I have written about, please feel free to ask.  I really don't have a problem sharing the few things I have learned along my travels.  Have a great day and remember, you are a very special person.