LSU Memories ~~ a finish!

A finish! Wait, a quilt finish! I've actually finished a quilt. This one is a memory quilt made of tee shirts from LSU. Purple and gold again! 

This quilt is to be a gift. A former client returned to request that I make another. I guess I couldn't resist that compliment because I happily took the job.  

I can't seem to just do the easy thing. I have to try something different every time I make a quilt. With this one, I decided to give color blocking a run. Some of the tees had designs on both sides, so those were easy to match up. Luckily, there were a few different shirts that looked good together and could make a large color block.

six gold blocks, note that I placed
 the two heavy designs side-by-side

four purple blocks from three quilts;
not all blocks are the same size

Of course, I didn't made this color block decision until after I'd already sewed columns together, so I had to rip a few seams out to make things match up. 

one block from many small designs

one block from four designs,
two pockets, and some filler area

Some of the tees had small designs that I could sew into one block. On the left block two pieces are actually pockets, which I left intact and open. Since I got two blocks this way, I was able to get 30 blocks to sew into five blocks by six blocks, making the quilt 70" x 84".


As I generally do with memory quilts, I chose to quilt each shirt or section with a different quilting motif. In the collage above you can see that the gray has an allover meander of loops within loops; the white Spring Greening Day has a tight flower motif; the purple (though it looks blue) has one of my favorites, scrolls; and the white Tabasco shirt has bamboo stalks. 

Each one either mimics a design on the shirt itself or picks up the theme of the shirt. For example, Avery Island, where Tabasco is made and bottled, has a grove of huge bamboo stalks and a large Buddha statue. Anyone who has toured the island would remember seeing the bamboo grove. Many brides have their bridals taken in the gardens, and there's a place in the grove where photo subjects can easily step into the bamboo for shots. I'm not sure that it's encouraged, however. 

And finally for the binding I chose this interesting tiger-skin cotton from my stash. The colors are blackish purple and shades of gold. I'm not sure I'm thrilled but it fits the theme of the quilt and seems to frame it well. 

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	LSU Memories
	Size:	70 x 84
	Fabrics:	Tee shirts from client
	Backing:	Natural muslin
	Binding:	Tiger-skin fabric from stash
	Batting:	100% Cotton
	Pattern:	Puzzle design
	Quilting:	custom design based on tee-shirts
	Completed:	2018 August

Here's another LSU quilt from 2012. It seems that I've made two LSU quilts already, but I can't seem to find the other. I suppose that I've lost track of all these memory quilts. A bit ironic, don't you think?

Link Ups

(It is a quilt finish, after all!)

My Quilt Infatuation (NTT)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Pin It Weekly #217

I have a wonderful friend who sews Greek letters onto tee shirts, blankets and other items for college students in fraternity and sorority organizations. Long story short, she broke her arm. Sewing is almost impossible until she has surgery and a hard cast. Guess who got a call! 

Are we surprised? No! And what do you do when your friend is crying on the phone while in the ER? I mean, come on. I had to help out. The picture above is of the two tee shirts and the one below of the three blankets.  

I've helped her in a pinch before, when she took on more than she could handle. That means she knows what she can expect. Ha! There's more to that story. Anyway, this business got me thinking of Greek life. 

So the truth is I haven't been pinning them but I have been thinking about them. Thus, here's some of the Greek life on Pinterest.

LSU Saturday Night

Our house is a true LSU house. Actually, I am quite okay to sew while a game is on, but others here cannot understand that attitude and occasionally I do have to sit in front of the TV. Today is the first game day for LSU, so it's the first game day on every TV in the house. Every. Television.  Every. 

Did I say every TV? Marley has a TV in her room, so she decided that she would watch the game with her Barbies. All the Barbies decided to tailgate the game. That's the fun way to watch a football game. Of course, Barbie felt that the correct protocol would be to include the Disney princesses. 

The princesses couldn't leave out the other dolls. And those dolls invited the rubber ducks. The rubber ducks couldn't come without the Littlest Pets and the princes' horse, which meant the princes had to be there. But the princes sat near the rubber ducks because there are so many princesses they couldn't give any one enough attention. And that's how we watch the game in our house. Who do you invite to your game day party?

Purple and gold pillows ~~ 4 finishes!

I mentioned earlier that I'll have a booth in the craft show held during our quilt fair. Since I'd be sewing something anyway, I figured I'd quilt up a few pillow covers for the booth. In fact, all of the sewing I'll do between now and then will be items for the booth. 

The pillows match but are definitely not the same. I can't make two exact of anything. (That's rather boring.) So on  one the quilt there are a few small black spacers that separate parts of the pillow. The quilting on that one changes with each section. Notice the very thin line in the tiger stripe. It's a one inch strip folded in half and stitched into the seam.

The second pillow uses the same fabrics--except the black--but the sections are sewn in the same way that I make fabric with scraps. In fact, I used most of the smaller scraps left from the other three pillows. The graffiti quilting has many changing motifs repeated across the top. It's a fun design until I can't think of the next motif. I keep lots of inspiration quilts close at hand. And use them often!

These two pillows add to the ones I made a couple of weeks ago but didn't get to write about. 

The first one is just a color-block purple and gold using the same four fabrics that I used for all of the quilts. The matchstick quilting seemed to take forever. But I had fun playing with the yellow, purple and white thread. Notice how I made the one yellow chevron stand out by using yellow thread on it but purple thread on the purple chevron. Cool, right?

And the last one was actually the second one I made. Same idea of using bits and strips to create a unique pillow cover. The quilting: easy peasy crosshatch using my walking foot. It was so easy that I kind of felt like it was cheating. Honestly, I planned to use straight lines but decided it needed more. I think more was the answer, don't you?

To give you an idea of how they are alike and different at the same time, we had a little photo session this evening. I waited all day for a break in the nasty hurricane rain, but that didn't happen. I finally gave up, turned lots of lights, and snapped away. 

Can't you see these piled up on the sofa during a few purple and gold games? Or they might fit in a mancave. Marley came into the studio while I was taking pictures and practically begged for one. 

I guess I can make a few more if these sell at the craft fair. Christmas is around the corner!

A Little Linkup Love

Koka Quilts (sew stitch snap SHARE)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

An LSU Weekend

I may have mentioned that my guys are LSU fans. Not that anyone in our family has attended LSU, but because, well, everyone in Louisiana is an LSU fan. 

Regardless, we have many friends, students and colleagues who are LSU alumni. And who doesn't love Coach O? That's the thing about Louisianans--we welcome everybody and love 'em with all we've got. A die-hard fan told me once, "We love every LSU coach even when we don't." Oddly, that makes perfect sense.

Saturday was one of those important LSU games (aren't they all?) and for some reason I pulled some purple and gold from the stash. Oh, wait, I know why I pulled those colors: Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation inspired me with her LSU quilt for her son. I read about it on Friday and loved her quilt. The next thing I knew, I had my own LSU quilt in my head.

And you know how that goes, right? Saturday morning I had to figure out that pattern in my head. I wanted it hang in this particular space so I oriented it sideways, but it can hang either way. (A grand took this pick. Wasn't she smart to open the pantry door just a bit to hide the mess behind? My girls know.)

Before the game started on Saturday evening, I had this sweet little banner hanging in the family room. It's been the center of attention since. A little like LSU, don't you think?

BUT...

I had those colors pulled, right? And a few scraps. And a bit of time. And a thing for pincushions. 









"Make the thing, already!" the fabrics said. And, of course, I listened. It may be my favorite pincushion so far. I added a few additional shades of purple, and I really like the modern vibe and the easy quilting. 

I quilted both projects on the Bernina. The wall-hanging has edge to edge curvy lines that criss-cross over each other, but the pincushion has overlapping straight lines quilted on the diagonal. 

Rather than make the lines evenly spaced, I moved the needle all the way over to one side and used the presser foot as the guide, so there are two close lines separated by a larger space. 


My favorite part of the pincushion is this one little corner of gold. Don't you just love a happy accident?

Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts
Busy Hands Quilts
Love Laugh Quilt

 Cooking up Quilts
Mel for Fiber Tuesday
Quilt Story

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: L S U

After Marley's big LSU silliness last night, I thought that I'd borrow a page from her book and celebrate our favorite college team. 

And if you think it would be difficult to find some LSU quilts--think again.  We'll start with one that was commissioned for an LSU student's graduation gift. Back in 2012 her aunt brought a big bag of LSU tees to me, and I turned them into a fun LSU quilt. The rest of these are quilts that I found on Pinterest.