Learning to De-Bone a Shirt

I had seen a couple of old quilts that I just went goo-goo over. Of course they were Blue and White.

Faded and mostly stripes and plaids. I had been looking for fabric to meet those specs and it's not easy to find. There is a line called Farmhouse Blues that is gorgeous. But I have a couple of quilts in mind and I realize that with the price of fabric and not really finding what I have in mind, I have to come up with another plan. Then I thought shirts. I have been visiting Bonnie Hunter's blog for awhile now and she is always speaking of using shirts, so I thought why not. 

I started looking in Thrift Stores when I came across one and had time to look.

Until yesterday I had found only 15 I liked 

Then while in Tulsa I thought I would find a new Thrift Store.

I scored, found 10 new shirts for 28 dollars.

That's 2.80 a shirt.

And one shirt can give around a yard (give or take) of usable fabric.

I had seen the video that Bonnie has on her blog on how to take apart a shirt, which she calls De-Boning. So I gave it a try.

EASY-PEASY

Here is a link to that video

This is one I "De-Boned" and it's laying on my cutting table.

(26 x 40)  table

So one down and couple of dozens to go. When added up, I should have fabric that cost me around 3 dollars a yard. 

  Pretty Good.

This is one of the quilts I want to make using these shirts.

It's old and falling apart but I like the pattern.

I guess  I can call this one my NewFO for this month.

Even though I might only get as far as de-boning.

But thats a start

It's Done

The second Get-R-Dones that I had my list for this month is finished.

I made the border a little wider because I plan on it making it scalloped.

I thought the row of houses turned out so cute. 

So now I'm on to #3 on my list.

I had made this quilt top awhile back and have the steps and pattern here on the tutorial page up at the top. 

So what I'm working on is making it larger.

Where Have I Been

Barbara Brackman has a New Blog. She started it 3 weeks ago. I can't believe its been that long since I last read her blog. 

What have I been doing ?

http://historicallymodernquilts.blogspot.com/

I am so excited over this new blog and just had to share with one's who don't know like me.

One of the posts she wrote about was just up my alley, Prairie School design resembling Frank Lloyd Wright's work. Oh my did my heart start beating fast. That is one thing you do not see much in quilting is patterns that is designs influence by the Arts and Crafts movement of over a decade ago. If you look hard enough you can find some but to have Barbara bring it to the forefront just gets me excited. But one thing that didn't click in my mind until now is why I find myself drawn to some of the modern quilts, (I consider myself a traditionalist) but maybe I drawn to them  because of  the simplicity that resembles the Craftsman style.
Even though she will have a pattern once a month, what I think it is mostly about will be the history involved around the turn of the 19th century when William Morris (love, love love) and other designers, whose influences over what was being called Modernism at that time. That's my impression, you go for yourself and let me know what you think. 

http://www.tilesandbathroomsonline.co.uk/

Yarn Along 4-24

What I am knitting on now is one of those projects that I found when organizing my yarn. 

I found this sock that was almost completed. It was Lydia's Sock pattern that was in the book A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber. So I'll finish this one and then make it's mate. I'm using a size 2 needle and being so small, it always seem to me to take so much longer to finish.

I did finish the baby hat I was working on last week plus another one too.

Using up just a very minuscule amount of my stash.

I had been able to listen to a book this past week that I did not write about last week. It was 

Her Fearful Symmetry by  Audrey Niffenegger and Narrated by Bianca Amato.

I had enjoyed this book and the narrator was very good, sometimes that makes a book even better. It was a different type of subject matter than I normally read but it was not too much that would make me not to continue with. I am not one that usually reads about the supernatural, ghosts, demons or fantasy. That sort of genre.

I was disappointed in the end though.

Publisher's Summary

When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt; they only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers - with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London. They come to know the building's other residents, including Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword-puzzle setter suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery.

As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including - perhaps - their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.

Niffenegger weaves a captivating story in Her Fearful Symmetry about love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about the tenacity of life - even after death.

©2009 Audrey Niffenegger; (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

I am now listening to a book that a friend had told me about last week.

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

by by Gail Collins and Narrated by Christina Moore

Publisher's Summary

An enthralling blend of oral history and Gail Collins' keen research, this definitive look at 50 years of feminist progress shimmers with the amusing, down-to-earth liberal tone that is this New York Times columnist's trademark.

©2009 Gail Collins; (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC.

So far I am really getting into it, especially seeing how it is about what has change during my lifetime  I was born in 58 and she starts her book in 1960.  

I just started it so not much to comment on yet but next week I'll have more to say.

Linked up to

http://www.gsheller.com/

http://tamisamis.blogspot.co.uk/

Featherweight Fanatics

I have been meaning to post about the Featherweight group at the Quilt Shop I'm at the most, Sager Creek in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Not sure but some time before the end of last year they offered their shop to a group of ladies who own or will own a Featherweight to get together and sew. Today we had 6 show up.

They support each other in sharing knowledge  techniques, new ideas and projects. 

One new idea was from Simone who bought this case at Walmart in the tool section. It's a case for tools but it's a great bag for your featherweight

Stanley Fat Max

Perfect for her new machine and space for accessories 

We try to have a group project and/or something of our own to work on. 

Today Liz showed us how to make these little needle pillows for our Featherweight. It is always a good idea to have your needle and presser foot down when not in use or transporting. So these little pillow just help secure the needle. 

Very easy to make and it's made from scraps

You will need 2" squares of 2 of one color and 2 from another color plus 1 square for back and a piece of batting.

Stitch the wrong side of back to the batting, this just keeps the batting from moving around.

With the 4 other squares you need to press them in half.

You will start laying them on the the right side of the back.

Crease will be toward the center.

You will lay one on top of the other.

When you get to the last piece you'll need to slip it under the first laid  one.

I pinned to keep it from slipping while sewing all around the edge.

Then you will turn it inside out by grabbing the back that is inside the 4 patch.

I had no good way of showing you how that is done but I think you'll know when you get to that part.

I'm going to put up at the top a tab just for the Featherweight Fanatics so I can keep all the neat things we share handy.

Feeding and Attracting Hummingbirds

I have been making my own Hummingbird food for years and it is very easy. About a week and a half ago I noticed my first Hummingbird so I made some food and cleaned my feeders.

The recipe is 4 Cups water to 1 Cup white cane sugar.

You can boil your water first and add the sugar or you can add the sugar to the water without boiling first.

I find it just as easy to boil and add. For me it dissolve faster but if you do not have the time to wait for it to cool down go with straight from the tap. At the website I'm referring to gives a great deal of helpful instructions on feeding from a feeder.

This great website has wonderful information and I have given some of what they provide but I would suggest you go there to really get more than what little I shared from them.

http://www.hummingbirds.net/index.html 

Map showing when to start your feeders.

This is info from http://www.hummingbirds.net/attract.html

There is more about not using  pesticides and insecticide in or around your garden.

Hummers eat a great deal of small soft bodied insects along with the nectar from flowers or your feeder.

Plants to Attract and Feed Hummingbirds

Trees and Shrubs

• Azalea
• Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)
• Cape Honeysuckle
• Flame Acanthus
• Flowering Quince
• Lantana
• Manzanita
• Mimosa
• Red Buckeye
• Tree Tobacco
• Turk's Cap
• Weigela

Vines

• Coral Honeysuckle
• Cypress Vine
• Morning Glory
• Scarlet Runner Bean
• Trumpet Creeper

Some may be annuals or perennials depending on climate.Flowers

Perennials

• Bee Balm (Monarda)
• Canna
• Cardinal Flower
• Columbine
• Coral Bells
• Four O'Clocks
• Foxglove
• Hosta
• Hummingbird Mint (Agastache)
• Little Cigar
• Lupine
• Penstemon
• Yucca

Annuals

• Beard Tongue (and other penstemons)
• Firespike
• Fuchsia
• Impatiens
• Jacobiana
• Jewelweed
• Petunia
• Various Salvia species
• Shrimp Plant

NOTE: Japanese Honeysuckle attracts hummingbirds, too, but it's an invasive and troublesome exotic species that's no longer recommended.
Courtesy of Hummingbird.net

I had watched this video when it was on our local PBS channel but you can watch here at PBS Video

It is amazing

What's Up 4-22

What I have up on my design wall is one of my Get-R-Done's.

Once I get this row stitched all I need to do to finish the top is sew the rows together and add a border.

And then on the other part of my wall is another one of my Get-R-Done's, 

Some Kind of Wonderful.

I started this one last year in March and with birth of my Grandsons it has been neglected. As soon as I finish sewing the sashing strips I will have these two rows completed. Three more rows to go.

Can you can tell,

 I love to applique

Like Heaven

You could not of asked for a more beautiful day. Have you ever felt like you hope that this is what heaven might be like.

Or things are so perfect that you're afraid something will happen to end it.

The Man of the Place worked on the water gaps sense the water is down and my job in helping was cooking for his Dad and brother who came to help.

You couldn't of asked for a better day to have to work outside. I walked down to the creek to see all that had happened. It's amazing what the force or water can do.

At this spot the water had been as high as my shoulder, you can see the debris in the tree. And in other spots it had been over 8 feet.

But it is so different now, places we would cross are now so wide and deep you can't now. And the amount of gravel and sand that has washed up just changes the flow of the creek.

So this evening I am going to continue quilting on my daughters quilt and I am loving doing a big stitch.

It is going so quickly

I'm using two colors of pearl cotton Valdani 12 wt. and an embroidery needle.

Mad Men is on so I need to finish and start quilting.