This winter was very mild in Lund, with only a couple of minor snow events and few freezing temps. We were hoping for some ice-skating weather but we seem to have missed the narrow window for that.
Instead, many dreary winter days were spent on my first big sewing project. The accumulated tee shirt souvenirs of 15 plus years have manifested their highest form in a quilt for the eldest Noiceling. From pre-K fun with Ingrid, through field days, family adventures, summer camps, middle school events, the Sweden school years and culminating with University wear, we relived the memories while choosing which items to include.
I started with just a few shirts to make a mini-quilt for practice but it soon morphed into a generous twin size bedspread, incorporating close to 30 shirts. It was quite a slow process since I had to learn all the functions of my new sewing machine and then each step in making the quilt. I didn’t have a real plan for how I would assemble the blocks and made it more complex by cutting out different size pieces from the t-shirts. Once I accepted that it would be significantly easier to have uniform blocks (a serious design limitation imho) I had to remake almost every one, adding or subtracting fabric to get the desired shape. Doing it this way meant I was able to include lots of fun materials such as fabric from a favorite Holly Hobbie doll blanket and baby clothes but it did take a lot of time.
Bryant took to heart my comments about creating a design wall to aid in arranging the blocks without using our bed and/or the dining room table. After a few days of the quilt pieces being scattered across these surfaces (occasionally with pins in them though I was quite careful about that) he arrived home with giant pieces of foam stuffed into the car. It was a bit late in this project for a design wall, but when I start my next one I’ll have a really nice space prepared for that part of the process! We plan to cover the panels with fabric so that they look nice and can be left in place on the wall behind our TV.
During my visit to MN, Mary, our BnB host, gave me some quilting tools and a jelly roll of rainbow colors which inspired a theme to unify the many tee shirt colors. Initially I planned to exclude the black tee shirts but since they were some of H’s favorites, we wanted to find a way to make them work in the rainbow color scheme. So for a while I was back at design square one trying to incorporate the darker tees, but by adding color to the borders of each black shirt they were made to fit. The eldest and I spent lots of time together during her winter sport break since it started early and she was able to do her classwork remotely. One day we went to Malmö for brunch and quilt supplies. We had planned to do a bit of shopping but after the quilt shop visit our arms were overloaded. We didn’t consider how bulky the batting would be!
After adding a border, combining some machine quilting and hand-tying, binding the edges and cleaning up all the loose threads, cat hair etc, the quilt is ready! It’s heavy but fairly soft and flexible in spite of the stabilizers and some thick materials. I’m pretty happy with the result, and have a much better idea of what might be done differently next time. Hopefully future projects will go more smoothly.
Bryant was traveling for work during Valentines day so the girls and I ordered the couples sushi special from next door and enjoyed an evening of Disney’s Robinhood and some spa treatments. I’ve been encouraging B to post about Barcelona but he’s been fantastically busy lately. I made a valiant attempt to finish the quilt in time for H to take it back to Visby with her but I couldn’t quite get the binding done. But now it’s finished and I have a good reason to go see her, perhaps for one of her choir performances.
Leave a Reply