a man quilt

This quilt idea has been in my brain for A LONG TIME. I have been saving hubs' old shirts since he started working and my box is overflowing! A good friend of ours just had some serious surgery and needs a quilt for snuggling. These shirting fabrics were just the right thing for his quilt. I think I will make a twin one for hubs (since I've never actually made him a quilt!) All the fabric in this quilt was made from 100% cotton dress shirts except the outside border (I ran out of white.) Here is a closeup of the quilting my sister-in-law Emily did. She has recently acquired a long arm and has already quilted 4 quilts for me! She does an excellent job and is looking for more clients - if you're interested here is her blog - Emerson Quilting. Right now she is offering a 25% discount! I think this is my favorite quilting pattern. I will definitely be requesting it in the future.

A scrappy binding. I would have preferred it to be cut on the bias, just for the look, but I didn't have quite enough for that. The backing was just a solid white flannel. Nice and snuggly.

If you are going to make a quilt using men's shirts - I would suggest NOT using the ironed pleats (in backs and sometimes sleeves). These folds didn't come out even after I washed the quilt.

If you are interested in dimensions or a tutorial - please let me know in the comments!

Thanks for looking!

a new old quilt

Last time I went to my Modern Quilt Guild meeting - I brought this quilt.

I started this quilt before my oldest was born - so probably around 11 years ago. At some point I put it away because I decided the colors weren't boyish enough. But eventually I finished it. I'm not even sure when - maybe 3 years ago? Anyway - it took me a while.

I planned this all out in my idea notebook at the time. I picked 5 colors of embroidery floss that I loved and designed a different plaid pattern for each square (or partial square). I also designed a border that I never got around to doing.

The quilting doubles as embroidery and both the front and the back are white, so they are pretty close to the same.

Before starting the stitching I marked the squares with an erasable quilt pencil. For the stitching I used masking tape as a guideline. I also started in the center (using a ruler to find it) and worked my way to the outside of each square.

I love how this quilt turned out and I love that it was so creative and original. It's hard to be original these days when I find so many great ideas that someone else has already come up with.

Jack's Stripes

I finished this quilt a few weeks ago. I have had it on my list for years. Jack got a twin quilt for his bed when he was 2, but it got worn out a while back and I never really liked it anyway.

I just did a simple top (8 inch wide strips) - which took no time to sew together.

For the back I wanted to use only fabrics from my stash. So this was sort of improv pieced. I LOVE how it turned out. I think I even like it better than the front. It's nice that it's reversible.


The quilting was just very simple straight lines random widths apart. My lovely sister-in-law Emily quilted it on her new long arm! Thanks Em! (If you're looking for long arm work - you should check her out! Here.)