T-Shirt Quilt

The idea to make a t-shirt quilt came from seeing how fabulous my friend Erika's was. So I read her blog post about it and made one.  I got my instructions from Erika and from other blog tutorials.
Her Lazy Gal postings were helpful, especially the  binding  tutorial at the end. I spent five hours binding it yesterday but watched Spiderman with the boys while doing it.

I loved making it but I hated cutting up my Dale Hollow Lake tee and t-shirts from when the boys were toddlers. I still have them obviously, so need to stop being a sentimental fool.

The whole process took me 3 weeks and cost about $100 for all the materials: cutting board, cutting roller knife, interface, cotton batting, binding fabric, flannel fabric for backing, quilt basting spray, and thread.  I also cheated and bought a couple of extra tees from the thrift shop, namely John Cena (to satisfy the boy's WWE obsession), Black Sabbath (for Craig) and one that says "Take me to bed or lose me forever". It's a cheesy line from Top Gun but Craig has said it to me a lot over the years.

I sewed two appliqués - one was a VW Bug from a t-shirt of Danny's that was too small to be a stand-alone square and I chopped up two "66" numbers from an old sweatshirt to add onto a blue square. The 66 represents the only time England has won the World Cup.

It was hard work, I'm not going to lie. It took effort and concentration and I did it as best as I could as I want it to last forever. It took a lot of patience and I learned A LOT of sewing machine skills.

So there you are. I think it's the best thing I've ever made. Now I just need it to get cold enough to use it.

My favorite square: Jack's blue onesie (that he wore home from the hospital) and his toddler t-shirt

Love this shot. Ignore scratched leather on chair caused by nuisance dog.

Red flannel backing and polka dot binding

So many memories are tied up in these t-shirts of ours

The Daniel seal of approval

My Best Mate Bridget

I am slowly but surely turning into the Dowager of Grantham. Next weekend me and Maureen are going to a Saturday morning gardening class at a local church to learn about roses and vegetables. I feel like I should take a tray of fairy cakes with me and maybe some knitting. Let the good times roll! In other "I'm getting old before my time" news, I have been off the wine now for nearly a month and I've started making quilts. If I'm not careful it won't be long before I'm carrying my cat in my handbag and pulling my hankie out of my bra.

To remind myself that I am in fact still a young woman, I have started listening to the audio book of the 3rd installment of Bridget Jones's Diary while I am in my car. I love Bridget. I know she's a made-up person but I can't separate the book character from Renee Zellweger and I do think of her as a friend. I love that, even at 50 now,  she drinks and swears too much and does dizzy things and blurts out inappropriate nonsense to all around her, including her children.  In this third book she's actually making me feel like a much better mum than I thought I was. At least I wash mine after a bout of sickness and diarrhea. But what I'm loving about the book is that its about a 50-year old thinking about herself, having a life outside of being a mum and wife. She still has mates, still gossips and flirts and tries to do her best to be sexy. I need to do those things. Not that I don't enjoy doing charity work or helping out the PTA but I wouldn't add the word "sexy" or "hilarious" to either of those. So long live Bridget! And when the movie comes out I'm going on a girl's night out, sans cat in handbag.

Danielisms

Daniel quotes of the week

Can I watch Fred (a program on tv) because he's annoyingly awesome.

My wrestling team is called the WWE Fruities.

How did my soccer team get beat by 3 year olds? (actually they were also five, it's just that he's super tall).

That tshirt isn't frayed around the neck, I chewed it. Yep I chewed it. Sorry.

I want to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day until I die.

Daniel don't put your head in the ..... oh, never mind

Feeling Melancholy

It's been weird week. Not weird in an extraordinary or good way, but a week of feeling like things aren't right with the world. I feel off.

It's probably due to my contact lens prescription being wrong. I have to struggle through until they swap them out next Wednesday but feeling like I'm seeing the world through the bottom of an old milk bottle doesn't help this feeling of not being right.

I've had good news this week too. My kids got into the latchkey program at the local school, I'm still motivated to stay off the wine and I'm slowly plugging along on house projects. We're even getting our much coveted porch built! And we're all fine - healthy and happy.

So what is this feeling? Could it be connected to 9/11? Or is the solar storm causing havoc with my hormones? Am I fed-up about my nephew having some trouble lately and my dear friend being sad because she's lonely? Yes to both of those.

And today I got a horrible email off a man that didn't like a newspaper article that I had written, so that hasn't helped matters. He got the wrong end of the stick but instead of asking me about it he went on a tirade and was actually quite nasty and hurtful. That bothers me, how mean people can be from the comfort of their computer chairs.

I miss Linda. I miss my mum & Tom. I miss Leanne. I don't miss wine but maybe that's the thing that's making me feel weird. Round about now I'd have a merry glow about me and I'd be oblivious to all theses feelings of melancholy.

Let's hope tomorrow is better.

Kitchen Renovation 2014: Before Pictures

It's been a long time since we renovated the kitchen. I hate it now as it seems so dark and pokey.  In hindsight we shouldn't have stained the cabinets cherry and we have so.much.clutter. And the cupboards aren't organized. So anyway, here's a few "before" pictures. I'm excited to get stuck in and make some changes!

I do wish school would stop sending important papers home

Dark dark dark...

Hate the cabinet and cart - want a pantry and work space!

I love my window seat but it's shabby

A Burst of Energy

This week I have been prooooductive!

We applied for citizenship
Painted the basement steps
Sorted out laundry room and basement
Started renovating the kitchen
Caught up on housework
Called people
Facetimed friends
Got a lot of stuff done at work

Is there a chance that this burst of energy has come from me not drinking wine and trying to get 8 hours of sleep every night this week? I think I know the answer to that. But the 4 cups of coffee a day probably helped too.

August 1-Second-a-Day

It's time for August's 1-Second-a-Day video!

May was a great month
June was too
July was hard to beat

But August might just be our favorite so far as it stars my mum & Tom & Leanne....

Music picked by Craig: "Long-legged guitar picking man" by June Carter & Johnny Cash