Tee Shirt Quilt

When my husband suddenly passed away 7 years ago our family was devastated. When I plow through old pictures I can now smile at things that were so raw only a few years ago. The holidays are always difficult and I suppose always will be. I have two wonderful children and the most difficult thing I ever had to do in my life then and probably forever was calling them on the phone and tell me their dad had died. Horrible thing to have to do...but as I said looking back at some pictures brings some warm feelings.

When  my husband died my sister and her husband came all the way from the far west coast  ( my sister flew from a one small building airport in Washington and my brother in law drove their RV and towing their car to the Jersey shore ) to be with me. They stayed for 8 weeks helping me try to put some of the splintered wood back together. My sister gently took all my late husband's tee shirts and some shirts and blue jeans and I never really asked why but that Christmas the following wonderful things appeared a few days before Christmas!!!! She had loving photographed, cut apart and sewed quilts for my children and myself ....here they are...the small lap quilt she made for me used all the sleeves from his favorite tee shirts while the quilts she fashioned for my children included the tee shirts he wore over the years the kids played sports or traveled with him. She took pictures of each tee shirt front and made a photo collage for each of us. She's so smart and so creative......

a softball tee shirt in my daughter's tee shirt quilt

football tee shirt from son's quilt

check the background and all the free motion quilting

great free motion quilting

tee shirt sleeves lap quilt with flower free motion quilting

son's "Dad tee shirt quilt"..neat off-set block very masculine ..background fabrics great for guys 

close up of "sleeves" quilt quilting

daughter's "Dad tee shirt quilt"

daughter's tee shirt quilt

...and the quilt is warm....

photo collage of tee shirt fronts used in quilt

Christmas Past

here are a few more Christmas stockings…I used this as a Christmas card one year!  Between my family and my sister's and my two brother’s there are 10 other stockings hanging out !! opps…maybe 12 counting my own mom and dad’s……

Getting ready for Christmas

I have made custom novelty Christmas stockings for my family for the last thirty-eight years. My sister, mom, aunt and I owned a needlepoint shop in Spring Lake NJ  for a couple of years ..... I learned a lot , painted and designed a lot and wish now I still had the shop ! Oh well, now I just design, paint and stitch when a special person comes into our family. When my daughter married her love he waited patiently for his ... Here it is ..... You can see what his interests and accomplishments are!!!!! The backing is a bright orange camp and it is lined in a plaid homespun .... I'll take better pix later. The next picture is the painted canvas for my new six month old granddaughter!!!!!! Have to get great Aunt Chris to stitch with me she's in charge of all the figures.... I do the back ground,embellishments  and blocking and sewing it all into a stocking...... Got some great small wale corduroy in white and hot pink chevron !!! Check back in two months to see the finished project!!!

Old Pattern Tissue

Use old sewing pattern tissue for packing ... Plus it's fun looking back at old things you had sewn years ago!

Scrapppppy Halloween Quilt

Which comes first ... The chicken or the egg..... So I had all my Halloween stash out and made some bowls and a quilt for my grandie ... Lime green pumpkin is Jean Wells technique and fee motion quilting on pumpkin uses glow in the dark thread! BOO!

Halloween spoookieeeeee stuff

I make coiled rope bowls(see way down several posts) and my daughter wanted one for her K classroom so I dug out all my scraps and made one for the classroom and one for my granddaughter's babysitter ........ Now all we need are the treats.....

Seasons Grater!!!

Here are the Fall graters!!