Great Hockey Jersey Quilt in the Making

It's finally coming together - the great Hockey Jersey Quilt!

My nephew graduated from high school this spring and is going away to University very soon. He loves hockey and was a goalie in both Ottawa and Denmark, so a t-shirt quilt made up of a few t-shirts and many hockey jerseys is a perfect gift.

The Great Hockey Jersey Quilt needs one more row of t-shirts and borders

I've been working on this project for about a month. Typically when I am starting something new, I read the book!

I bought it at Martingale, my favourite quilting book shop. The book is Terrific T-Shirt Quilts by Karen M. Burns. It was really informative. Since you sort of have to make-it-up as you go with this type of quilt, it was great to get some ideas as well as technical information.

Terrific T-Shirt Quilts

Funky Monkey Fabrics

I was very nervous about sewing with stretchy fabrics. Not only did I have t-shirts but I also had all kinds of hockey jerseys! It turns out there's a great secret that makes these fabrics as easy to sew as regular cotton fabric! It's called FusiKnit Tricot Fusible Interfacing. You just iron it onto the back of the t-shirt or jersey and voila! You now have fabric that's easy to handle and sew. I bought it at Funky Monkey Fabrics, a Canadian fabric store, recommended by a colleague, that specializes in knits. The interfacing is only 20" wide, so I bought 5 yards. That was enough to back most of the hockey jerseys. I then had to order another 3 yards. Now I have enough to finish the quilt!

There are many different ways of putting a t-shirt quilt together. Since I'm not renown for my planning, I just started cutting around the logos and anything else that might be of interest for the quilt. My brother told me what was important but otherwise I was free to do as I please (my kind of project).

The interesting pieces were the ones where the front, the back and sometimes the sleeve were going to be part of the quilt. I didn't want to separate them, so I ended up piecing them together in different ways. Here are some of them:

Front of the jersey with a patch from the sleeve

This first block has the sleeve at the top to show the team colours, then the front of the jersey with a patch from the back .

The sleeve, front and back of the jersey

The second block is the front of the goalie jersey and a patch from the sleeve.

The third example includes the front of the jersey, which had to be cut in a particular way and so includes some additional piecing as well as one sleeve and then the goalie patch from the other sleeve.

The front as well as a sleeve and patch 

I will leave this post to finish up the top row. These have t-shirts of things that my nephew loved as a kid - Spiderman, Toy Story etc.

There are also a couple of blocks that I left blank. I will add various patches to these.

I used a few Kona cottons to make the sashing or borders around the blocks. Today I ordered the border and backing fabric from my favourite local online supplier - Mad About Patchwork. The crunch is on - my nephew leaves for school in 11 days!

I expect to be doing a whole lot of quilting next week :-)


What I learned:

• When using the FusiKnit Tricot Fusible Interfacing, it's important that the stretch of the interfacing is in the opposite direction to the stretch of the fabric. I highly recommend Terrific T-Shirt Quilts. The advice on working with knits was terrific and saved me a lot of headaches.
• When cutting up the t-shirts and jerseys, cut as large a piece as possible. It's much easier to cut off more than to sew it back together!
• I really like Kona cottons but I'm going to have to invest in a colour chart. It's so hard to keep track of which colours are which when you want to re-order anything. I have kept track of some of the fabrics by cutting a small piece and stapling it to the invoice before I wash them. Unfortunately I haven't always done that :-(
• BTW, the quilt is a surprise. My nephew doesn't read my blog....so don't tell him!

This post is linked to some great linky parties. Check out what everyone is up to!
Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Fabric Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Oh Scrap!

Pink Lemonade Spring Runners

It seems that everyone in North America has had a longgggg winter! What a better way to celebrate spring than with a new spring runner.  This is the first of a series. I just hope that the others will be done before spring is over!

Last summer, before my brother and his family left for Denmark, my niece came over and picked a bunch of very nice fabrics that we were supposed to make something with....well, as life goes, we ran out of time before she left. In the middle of the winter blahs, I took out that fabric and started planning a spring runner for her parents and a wall hanging for her.

Set the Table, published by Martingale

Pink Lemonade Runner

The pattern comes from a book published by Martingale's Set the Table. I bought the book because of all of the quilting  that are used on the runners. It's a great way of learning more quilting techniques on small projects.

Here's the finished runner. Those fabrics and colours remind me of pink lemonade. I love it!

I had a great time quilting the wall hanging. It was just the perfect size for the cross hatch quilting.  As I went on Google to look up the term, I noticed all kinds of advice on cross hatch quilting - I guess I should have checked before attempting the runner! The runner is not cross hatched because my lines were not straight enough - the diamonds that look so pretty on the wall hanging would have revealed all of the imperfections, so the runner is quilted in one direction.

Wall Hanging for Anna

I also had a great time making a label for Anna's project. It's a 3 inch paper-pieced crocus from the fabrics used on the runner.

Paper-pieced Crocus Label

The package is being sent today. A little late for Easter but still in time for spring!

What I learned:

• Cross hatching a small project is fun but cross hatching a runner is really, really tedious, especially when it goes wonky!
• My Google search indicated that you should use masking tape to mark the project and then do the cross hatching; while one of my quilting friends said that you should quilt a few lines in one direction and then a few lines from the other direction to keep the quilt even. I tried to use the guide that comes with my walking foot, but it kept moving. Apparently I have to tighten it somewhere. I'll have to look into that!

Finishing up Winter Quilts

I started two wall hangings before Christmas. Since they are both more about winter than Christmas, that makes them....not late! Besides, they're not late if there are no deadlines, but it is better when they are made and finished for the season they represent!

The first wall hanging is a paper piecing project from the book, The Quilter's Home: Winter by Lois Krushina Fletcher, published by Martingale. The project is the "Winter Vacancy" wall hanging. It's made up of two paper pieced blocks. The first is a snow covered birdhouse and the other is a cardinal. It's very winter and lovely.

Winter Vacancy

I just love paper piecing! I like the way it comes so well together. I'm getting better at it and more organised so that I can cut the fabric and iron it on my home-made ironing/cutting table that's right next to my sewing machine.

I still have to work on having my seams not come apart when I remove the paper from my project. I'm experimenting with stitch length. Apparently if your stitch length is shorter, it'll almost cut the paper. The problem with short stitches is obvious if you have to rip out the stitching! I'm not sure what's worse - having seams pull apart or not being able to unsew. At least when you quilt the project, especially if it's a wall hanging that won't go through the wash, the quilting will keep the project together.

This next piece is from a pattern I purchased separately from Martingale. It's Ribbon Wreath Table Topper from the book, Comfort and Joy: 14 Quilts for Christmas by Mary Hickey. I really like its clean lines and the fact that the red around the wreath looks like a ribbon going through the project.

Ribbon Wreath  Wall Hanging

As usual, since I just can't follow a pattern without making changes, there are a couple of things that I would do differently, if I ever make another one. I said that I liked the look of the ribbon going through the project, but it turns out that if you use different red fabrics for the ribbon, that it won't look so much like a ribbon (oops!).

The projects were pieced and sandwiched a while ago, but since I haven't free motion quilted in a few weeks, I just haven't had the energy to finish them. Thank goodness, that's what weekends are for!

What I learned:

• When I change the fabrics in a project, I should consider if the changes will have an overall effect on the look of the project. Having a variety of reds is nice, but it does look less like a ribbon going through the project.
• When I made an error on the size of one of the strips, I didn't think it would really make an overall difference. If I had looked at the overall project more closely at that time, I would have noticed that the corners where the red ribbons meet would be changed. It's not a big deal, but if I had taken the time to rip the seams of the strip when I discovered my error, this would have saved me a problem and more ripping out later on! I guess the moral of this story is to take a few minutes to consider the consequences of not fixing a mistake when the mistake (or design change) is discovered.
• I was very impatient to take a picture of the Ribbon Wreath project but then realized that I haven't added the buttons to the project yet. There are 24 red buttons that look like berries on the wreath. I'll add them this week and post a follow-up picture! 

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector

It's completed! Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector, whose pattern is by Jaynette Huff is done! I downloaded this pattern from Martingale - it was free and I couldn't resist....but I didn't expect to make it for a while. One day, I felt like starting something new and voila! The rest is history.

I blogged about Patches in my last post, but I'm so happy with the result that I had to share it (aka show off!).  My husband's comment was: "No offence, but he rather looks like a Calvin Klein scarecrow". No offence taken...I'll choose to take that as a compliment (it might be the white linen shirt!)

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector, pattern by Jaynette Huff

Here he is in all of his glory!  For now, he resides at work - it's frankly too large to put on the wall at home! That's what happens when you don't look at the measurements of a project before you start.

I want to thank Martingale for the free pattern and I need to give credit to Craftsy: First to Carol Doak for her Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing course and then to Leah Day for her Free Motion Quilting a Sampler.

I also hand appliquéd the birds - and I used the skills I learned in Kathy Wylie's class.



Free-Motion Process:

• I marked the clouds so that I would get them right.
• I used multi-coloured thread to stitch the wheat - both on the wheat fabric and on the horizon. I like the way it came out.
• Quilting around the pumpkins makes them "pop".
• You can't seem them in this picture, but the black border has pumpkins quilted on them. I made a template so that the pumpkins would all be the same size and also made a template of a pumpkin leaf since I had the horrible time trying to draw them!

Isn't it great to be putting all that learning into practice? Don't give up - it is all about practice!