Christy's Quilt (entirely hand-sewn: patchwork, appliqué, and embroidery)

This project took about a year. I had meant to deliver on graduation, but got it to her by the time she was leaving for Bilbao, SPAIN.


All of the materials and carrying case:


creating the layout


tracing the patches


the template and kitten approval


after cutting out the pieces, starting to lay them out:


Individual Squares, some embroidered, some patchwork: they were all based on things that Christy loves so we have astronomy!

the big dipper


the beach with our cousins


this is a traditional "patience" square because Xy is amazingly patient.


the team formerly known as the Redskins


our dog, the Duke of Buckingham (because Xy was reading the Three Musketeers and he was the only English character), also known as Bucky and the Buckenator


at Mary Washington, Xy is part of the Devils


traditional patchwork known as "mother's favorite" and we all know why


traditional patchwork known as "crazy colorado square" because her father's family is from Colorado


apples because she loves them


dogwoods, the state flower of Virginia from where we hail


fishing in Maine with her cousins


lines from her favorite hymn, Juliane of Norwich

Then to start putting it together with the border










Finished product!

Jane's Daughter's Quilt

This is how the shirts showed up:


after cutting them out and sewing them together, they were kitten approved:


pinning the front, batting, and back:


almost done!

UPDATE: 2/26/13 DONE!

Lee's Quilt

Lee is my younger brother. When he was born in 1988 he was a really sick kid. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and every time my mom had a contraction, it caused him to aspirate meconium (which is the yuck that babies start to make while they're still in the womb). His lungs were completely covered and he was rushed to the NICU and then flown to Children's Hospital in DC where he was treated on a machine called ECMO. It left a nasty scar on his neck. Due to the cord tightening around his trachea he underwent some reconstructive surgery when he was two years old to widen and strengthen his airway. The first attempt at this failed, he went into acute respiratory failure when he was about two and half years old. He and I were playing in the family room, I had pushed a balloon into his face just as he inhaled. As if you held your index finger on the bottom of a straw and sucked from the top, so did his trachea collapse. He was rushed to Children's again where they took out a portion of his lowest rib and used it as a splint in his trachea.

All of this to explain why it is such a BFD that the t-shirts we're using in Lee's quilt are from all of the regattas he has won over the years. He joined rowing when he was a freshman at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The crew team stuck together and won three years at Stotesbury, three years at Nationals, and competed in the Royal Henley Regatta in 2007. He went on to row for University of California Berkley and has been coaching for local schools for the past two years.



The pile of t-shirt scrap from the 40 t-shirts Lee gave me to sew together:



It's going to be more manageable to sew 20 together on the front and 20 together on the back. The front will be shirts from high school and the back will be shirts from college. We bought denim for the border and a light batting for the insides. We chose three colors of trim: red and blue for TJ and yellow and blue for Cal.



I'm also using some of the ties that he's collected over the past few years and his Boy Scout shirt for one of the corners. Kitten approved!




Luckily, I'm not sewing those sweaty gross unis.

Kristina's Quilt

Kristina is a runner and volunteer and the Leadership Giving Manager for a non-profit organization in Northern Virginia, Doorways for Women and Families, which seeks to create pathways out of domestic violence and homelessness toward safe and stable lives in order to have a future without homelessness - or domestic violence.

She gave me 16 t-shirts from different walks where she has volunteered, the Chicago Marathon which she ran a few years ago, different volunteer events, and t-shirts from her youth which are just really super soft!



I used a flannel backing with swallows which I believe used to be some curtains or pajama pants that I picked up at a clothing swap in Delaware in 2011 and the batting was from the trim of another quilt project, just the right amount! I love it when that happens.



Her birthday happened to be two weeks before Christmas and I was able to put it together to give it to her as a surprise

Tiffany's Quilt

Tiffany is a Team in Training member from the Greater LA family. She sent me 30 t-shirt squares which she had cut out from her Harley Davidson collection of shirts (she used to be a motorcycle mechanic in Ohio). Some of the squares were from tanktops and were obviously very well loved and let's be honest, Tiffany has a really nice um rack, and so they were a bit stretched out :) It was a little difficult to sew them together, but I put them together as best I could in the middle of the quilt so they wouldn't be as pulled along the outside. I had some corderouy left over from a Rogue costume I tried to make a few years ago, that I used for the border and a whole lot of red fabric left over from a quilt I had started in 2009 when I was living in LA (which I still haven't finished).



One of the shirts Tiffany sent had a pocket on the breast and I incorporated it into the quilt so that she can put her cell phone or remote control in it while she's watching TV.



Kitten approved!



This is a heavier quilt, due to the cordorouy and the batting, and Tiffany lives in LA, but I think it will be nice on chilly winter days.

First Project for Needles to Say: Team in Training Quilts

Team in Training Fundraising page

I am so completely overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. it really rocks my world. namaste.

I'm going to do a triathlon, to help find a cure for blood cancer, and also, to mark it off my list of things to do before I turn 35. Last year I signed up for the Nation's Triathlon in DC only to have to swim portion canceled. I saw firsthand the wonderful support and openness of the Team in Training team (especially the Greater LA family! whoot!). This year I completed two centuries and noticed the purple jerseys riding around everywhere and am still so tickled that everywhere they go there are cheers and encouragement from complete strangers. The TNT jersey means a lot and I want to earn one!

My fundraising goal is $6500, which is pretty daunting, BUT I have a skill which I think would be put to great use for this cause: quilting. Since 2009 I have been making memory quilts. They are simple, machine sewn, vary in size, are very warm and absolutely perfect for holiday and birthday gifts!

Over the past three years I have collected a trunk full of event shirts, maybe you have a friend/spouse/sibling/parent who has a drawer full of old concert t-shirts which they never wear; maybe they can be more efficiently used as a blanket! Clean out your shirt drawers to make room for holiday gifts! You don't have to give away your memory shirts to GoodWill (I'm probably going to have to pay back some dharma for that statement) you can repurpose them and keep them close! Make them into a quilt that can be given to your children's children etc. Like this!

The specifics (like colors for border and back and weight of the batting) can be worked out individually. I just need you to send me the t-shirts! If they are gifts, I need to know the birthday or which holiday they are to be gifted.

Prices:

9 shirts for a child's blanket = $ 250


16 shirts is roughly a twin bed blanket = $350 (like the one I made for Jason in the link above)

25 shirts is roughly a queen bed blanket = $500
36 shirts (because I know some avid concert-goers who have more than this) is roughly a king bed blanket = $650

Please say you'll join me in this fight against blood cancer and donate money in exchange for a memory quilt!