T-Shirt Quilt & Winterruption recap

T-shirt quilts are a great way to showcase someone's hobby, or chronicle their life.  Make sure you fuse the shirts to a lightweight interfacing otherwise when you're quilting they are going to slither and slide all over the place.  This was beautifully pieced (and fused! 😀).

There was one shirt that was being particularly uncooperative.  It wasn't normal t-shirt jersey, it was more like a thermal knit.  I subdued it with a sheet of doctor paper and painters tape.  The paper was ripped off after quilting.  Worked like a charm.

Somehow during WINTERRUPTION we neglected to take any photos.  The weekend will just have to live in our memories (which is probably a guarantee that details will be pretty distorted).
The gals arrived on Thursday.  I felt quite sorry for them because of the horrid fog they had to drive through.  For supper I fed them Teriyaki Chicken Thighs with basmati rice, salad, and Maple Spiced Poached Pears.
Friday we were joined by Judy Lyons, the quilt appraiser from Burlington.  Diane had a couple of quilts that needed appraisals, so we enticed Judy with a delicious lunch.  I love visiting with Judy - she is always full of interesting stories, and she did not disappoint.
Saturday we went on our field trip to Dundas.  Lunch at the Thirsty Cactus (I can especially recommend the Pulled Pork Fries - OMG, delicious!!!), on to the Feathering Quilt Shop, bumming around up and down King Street, then heading up to hwy. 5 and the Dutch Mill Country Market.
On Sunday the girls left a bit before lunch and had an easy drive home, with blessedly NICE weather.
I spent Sunday afternoon finishing the Singapore Batiks tablecloth quilt top that's been on my UFO list for a few years now.  I can finally move it over the the TFUQ listing.

The week was spent nose-to-the-grindstone.  The coming week I'll be celebrating my birthday, then heading off on the weekend for the Binbrook Guild retreat where I can enjoy doing some more piecing on my Apple Core quilt.  

T-shirt Quilt, Stash Report, UFO Challenge, Birthday (mine!!)

DH was trying to throw out tshirts that somehow shrank over the years.  Shrank?  Really?  I pulled them back out of the trash and quilted them up.  There are too many thoughts and stories connected with these!

I even quilted a tractor in the bottom corner for him.

This used up more of my stash - yaay.  In my head it let me justify buying a wee bit more.  Boo! bad Helen, bad.  Sometimes I wonder what I'll do if I use up all my stash?  Then I laugh and laugh at the nonsense of that idea, and get back to reality.

FEBRUARY STASH REPORT

Used this month:  11.9m
Used YTD:         23.75m
Added this month: 2.25m
Added YTD:         2.25m
Net YTD:          -21.5m

I took the Red Hats to Burlington to see the John Willard quilt exhibit, then we headed down the road to the Oakville Sewing Center.  This was a shop recommended to me by a customer and was definitely worth the drive.  I looove word fabric so picked up a bit of that, and the button print has a planned use on my current 'scrappy' quilt.  So it's all good.

I celebrated another birthday last week, and Mother Nature was true to form.  Another blinding snow storm, but at least this one was short lived.

I got lots of FB birthday wishes and lots of cards in the mail, and even a couple of Happy Birthday songs via telephone.

I know that if the snow ever melts and I manage to GO anywhere, there are friends out there who love me.  And as you can see, some of them know me pretty well.  :-)

The sticker was on the back of my card from Margaret, and she's the driving force behind this year's UFO challenge.  For the March/April time slot she pulled #5, which you may recall I was super-motivated about and already completed.  I have replaced #5 with these Batik Cats that I collected several years ago.

REVISED 2014 CHALLENGE LIST

	ITEM	CHALLENGE DETAILS	DATES	STATUS
1	60's Dresden Plates	TFUQ.  This is the January project, regardless of number drawn.	jan/feb	complete jan 18
2	Blooming 9-Patch	Needs outer border, then quilting.
3	Bowtie Quilt	TFUQ.
4	Double Wedding Ring	Pieces are cut.  Stitching to be started.
5	Brown Bats blocks from BOM Replaced with Batik Cats	Top to be made, quilted & bound.	Mar/Apr	BATS complete jan 23
6	Piece 'O Cake Quilt	Hand applique.  One block must be done for challenge.