Can any crafty Brits give an American an idea about what to do for a Guy Fawkes party? I can't set off Fireworks, and I can't burn an effigy...no bon fires, either, I live in a small flat with no yard. I'm not so into getting arrested!

I was thinking of building an effigy anyway, and getting people to give me money if they like him. Hm.

Thanks!

I made a t-shirt quilt a while back with my old college t-shirts and everyone LOVES it, so when my cousin Neal unexpectedly died a few weeks ago, I wanted to make something for his daughter. My Aunt Cindy donated a bunch of his old shirts for me to make a quilt out of, and I must say that so far this one is kicking my quilt's butt...but I like it that way

So, this is more a WIP than a completed project, but it is done enough to show here I think.

Here are all the squares sewn together. It bothers me a LOT that in the top left hand corner I sewed two green waffle print squares together, but my mom says that the Amish always make an imperfection in their quilts on purpose. I'll pretend that is what I was doing.


Here is the top, batting and backing sewn together.


And, finally, the bias tape pinned around the perimeter. All  I have to do now is sew that up and hand-quilt the top (I'm just doing square knots at the corner of each square so far)...

But, I do have another idea for the quilting. I have some thick navy blue material sitting around, so I thought I might cut hearts out of it and sew them with a whipstitch to the back of the quilt, going through the front, essentially quilting the front in the process, and making cool heart patterns on the front as well.

The cool thing about this quilt that I LOVE is that with some of the shirts that had zippers or buttons on them, I made little pockets. This is for his 9 year-old daughter, so I think that she will really like that.

My cousin just passed away two weeks ago. It was very sad, because he was so young. I wanted to do something for my Aunt and Uncle that would help with the grieving process, so I offered to make them a quilt out of his clothes. My mom went over to their house the other day and she helped my Aunt Cindy pick out some very special clothing to make the quilt with. They are going to give the quilt to his 9 year old daughter, so I want it to be very special and beautiful. There are some great items, and I think I can make something very special, but there is one thing I'm not sure how to incoporate, and I was hoping someone could help me out. This hat:
has the logo from his daughter's day care center on it, and my mom even mentioned it as being something pretty special. I want to incorporate it, but I'm not sure how to cut it up without it unraveling. It is a knit hat with a logo embroidered on it. It also has a fleece lining. Does anyone have any ideas on how to use this in a quilt?

I know that a lot of these have been posted here, but I'm quite proud of mine, considering it is my first sewing project in AGES.

This is my t-shirt quilt, made from some of the dozens and dozens of t-shirts that I have collected from my time at Marshall University. Some of the t-shirts just have my school logo, others are shirts from more specialized events (the science fair I judge annually, my summer-research group, etc.) I also used blank squares, and I put some upside down because it is really meant to be a stadium blanket (for cold football games!), and I don't want it to matter which way it is held.

Front:


The back is polar fleece, which is Marshall fleece (!) that I found at the local Wal-Mart (yeah, I hate shopping there, but I needed Marshall fleece for my quilt!)


Sorry for the dumb look on my face, my boyfriend is not good at taking pictures!

**EDIT**

Ok, someone asked for a tutorial. I feel a little silly posting this because it was that easy, but here it goes anyway:

1) Choose your shirts. I ended up using the backs of shirts as well (blank panels), but I would say that if you want a design on every square of your quilt, you will need about 25-30 shirts, if you don't mind having blank panels, about half of that. Notice that I also used a green bandana -- you aren't limited to t-shirts!!

2) Cut 13"x13" squares from each shirt. I made a template from cardboard first, which made it much easier (that way I didn't have to measure each square) **NOTE: the 13"x13" idea was taken from "Generation T: 108 ways to transform a t-shirt"...for all other parts of this project, I did not follow this project**

3) IMPORTANT! Lay all your squares out on the floor in the pattern you want them to be on your quilt. I don't suggest trusting yourself, because you will end up with two of the same shirt together or something if you don't do this step. It is hard to keep track of all the squares in your head.

4) Now, I sewed the whole top together in one evening, so I just took each row of squares, pinned and sewed them together and then layed it back down on the ground. After all the rows were sewed, I took the first two rows, pinned and sewed, then pinned the third, so on and so forth. I wouldn't recommend pinning the whole shebang together..that makes it very hard to sew.

5) Once you have everything sewed together, lay the top of your quilt out on the floor, right side facing up.

6) Note about fabric backing: If you are using a light weight fabric, use batting as well. I used fleece because I wanted this to be a throw, not a blanket, but since I made this, I made another one for a little girl's bed. I put flannel on the back and batting in between the layers...it is a perfect blanket for the bed!

7) I got two yards of fleece backing, which turned out to be perfect. Most fabrics are about 60" wide...allowing for seam allowance, you will notice that 5 squares (using 13"x13" squares) is just under 60"....this is not an accident. However, if you want your blanket to be wider, I would just get 4 yards and sew them together lenthwise, then you have ~120" to work with.

lay your fabric backing on top of your quilt top, right side down (if you are using batting, put the batting on top of the fabric backing) pin the two sides together, trimming any excess backing (and batting) as you go.

9) Sew the top and back together, leaving about a square's length unsewn to turn right side out. Use "invisible stitch" to close up your open square.

10) You can quilt this anyway you would like. I took the easy way out, and I just made a square knot using yarn and a big yarn needle at the corner of each square. I wouldn't suggest skipping this step, however, because you want the top of the quilt to be securely attached to the fabric batting.

VOILA!
This takes about two evenings. It is very easy to do all the cutting in one evening, and then all the sewing in the next...you could have a quilt by the end of the week!

[Two Stix Boutique]

If you are like me, you have knit a wide range of 'cozies'...one for your ipod, one for your phone, one for your beer can (tee hee)...so what is left in the 'cozy' genre....?


Why, a cozy for your NEEDLES, of course! I got this idea from the new issue of Knit 1 magazine. There was a little blurb about Two Stix Boutique. They make purses out of recycled wool sweaters by felting them and they also make these cute little needle cozies. I plan on making them MUCH better next time, I just made this quickly this evening to get the hang of what to do. I think I will be making these for X-mas gifts for the girls at my SNB group!



sorry the pictures kind of sucks. My photography skills are sub-par.

I want to start making the over-the-knee cabled leg warmers from the fall issue of Knit 1. Anyone want to knit along? Here is a picture in case you want to browse before buying the magazine:

It calls for Wool Ease Chunky, but I already have a bunch of Wool Ease Thick and Quick in Fisherman. I think it will be fine though, I'm going to go up a needle size too. My legs aren't that skinny, so I think it will turn out ok.

Ok. So, My mom wants a wool scarf. I bought her this BEAUTIFUL wool (85% wool, 15% mohair, Lamb's Pride bulky) to make it. Well, at first I started with the idea that I was just going to do a garter stitch scarf, because it was about the yarn, not the pattern. Well...that got old REALLY quickly. It felt like I was working on it FOREVER and I only had something like 6 inches..I just think that after becoming an INTERMEDIATE knitter who is doing shaping and cables and the like, a plain old garter stitch is just too tedious for me. Ok, fine. Then I started making the basketweave stitch scarf from SNB Nation, but it just doesn't look right with this yarn at all...It just looks messy. I'm at a loss. I really wanted to pump out this scarf quickly so I could start on some more pressing projects (Xmas in just four months! Eek!), but I can't find a pattern that I like anywhere. *pouts*


Here's a picture of the yarn.

Does anyone have any scarf ideas for a bulky yarn that isn't too tedious, but also looks good? Obviously, I could always do a stockinette stitch with a garter stitch border, but that is just as tedious as garter stitch!

Well, this isn't TECHNICALLY a FO, but...
I finished the first glove of Knitty's "Fetching" today! I'm sooo excited, because it was my VERY FIRST project that was in the round, AND it was on DPN's! I think, all inexperience aside, it turned out quite nice...what do you think?:

Hey all! I'm new here, and I thought I would post some of my FO's for you to check out. I went to a brand new SNB group last night, and a girl there was opening a package from one of the swaps she did for this site, and I was sooo excited. I can't wait to get enough posts to start doing swaps! Anyway, here are some projects that I have finished in the past:

I made this poncho for my little 2 year old cousin recently...

This is a hobo bag that I made just for test purposes (notice that I ran out of the colors I was using halfway through and just...changed to a new color), but I love it and I carry it all the time.

I made this ear flap hat from the SNB Happy Hooker book. I never did add the buttons...and when I wear it, I look like a football player from the 30's.

This is part of a blanket I've been working on FOREVER...I'm farther on it now....but still not completely done. I'm waiting for cooler weather to work on it again, as it is a VERY WARM blanket!

another bag...I designed this one!

There are many, many more, but the internet is slow today, so that is all I have patience for. Thanks for checking my stuff out!