T-Shirt Memory Quilt Tutorial - Part 2

Let's get started!



One shirt at a time, trim off neck, sleeves with seams, side seams, bottom edge, to make a large, rough cut about 18" square.



Layout bolt of stabilizer on cutting mat with bumpy (fusible side) up against wrong side of t-shirt. Trim stabilizer to be just smaller than t-shirt.



Keeping the two pieces together, transfer stabilizer and shirt to the press or ironing board. Place press cloth over area to be pressed. Spritz with water from the squirt bottle. Press for 10 seconds, then move to next section until t-shirt is entirely pressed.



When ALL the shirts have been fused, use a ruler to find the shirt with the LARGEST image. Give yourself a little extra space around this image for seam allowance and find the next whole number. This will determine your block size! Most of the time my blocks are 14" square. I keep everything in whole numbers as this makes the assembly of the quilt top easier to figure. Trim all blocks to the same size. This is where the large square ruler really comes in handy. You can also place a mark on the ruler at the 7" (halfway) point to help center the image in the square.

T-Shirt Memory Quilt Tutorial - Part 1

What do you do with an ever expanding stack of t-shirts collected over the years from vacations, sporting events, gatherings, school, etc? When life gives you t-shirts, why not make a t-shirt quilt?

I make many t-shirt quilts every year for my clients through my company, West Branch Studio. This series of blog posts will take you through the process of creating one of these special memory quilts.

Tools needed to get started:
t-shirts or clothing to be used in the quilt
fabric scissors
rotary cutter (mine is 60 mm)
rotary cutting mat (mine is 24" x 36")
rotary cutting ruler (mine is Creative Grids 16.5" square)
iron or ironing press
large scrap of muslin to be used as a pressing cloth
squirt bottle with plain water in it
light to midweight iron-on stabilizer
sewing machine in good working condition with walking foot

I usually buy my stabilizer by the bolt and have successfully used Pellon P44F, P911FF, and P906F in white. If I don't have time to get it through my wholesale supplier, I will use a JoAnn's 40% off coupon and buy an similar bolt locally. I figure about 18" of stabilizer per shirt. In reality less may be used but it's always good to have enough stabilizer for a few extra shirts just in case.

A regular household iron will work just fine, but takes much longer than a press. My press is dry (no steam), so I use a squirt bottle to provide some moisture on top of the pressing cloth when I'm fusing shirts. I set the press to a little cooler than cotton, and I press for 10 seconds at a time. My machine beeps at 10 seconds so this is very handy.

Next post - prepping the shirts!

The Laughing Carefree Gull

I had the thrill today of having lunch with my newest client Gail Gersic to celebrate the printing of her first independently published book, "The Laughing Carefree Gull." I created the design and layout of her book, which features a lovely poem she wrote about her granddaughter playing on the shores of Ocean Beach, New Jersey. It is beautifully illustrated by her dear friend Doris Barabas. It was such a treat to work with Gail this year and see her vision come to life, or print I should say! I wish her all the best and many books to come!

Pictured below are Gail Gersic (left), our friend and mentor Marcia Mackenbrock (center), and Jim Ross (right), of Worzalla Printing Company.

Black Bean Salad

This is a recipe I cut out of a magazine a long time ago, and go back to again and again in many variations depending on what's in the pantry. It makes a nice large batch, great for parties and large groups. Pair with two bags of your favorite tortilla chips.

Dump all ingredients in a large bowl and stir. The pretty green glass bowl seen in the photos belonged to my Grandma Heser.

• 2 cans Black Beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 Tbsp. chopped pickled jalapeno slices
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. Goya Adobo seasoning with cumin
• 1 10 oz. package frozen corn
• 1 cup diced red onion
• 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes
• 3 Tbsp. fresh minced cilantro
• Juice of 1-2 limes
• 1 small can of chopped or sliced black olives

Notes: I sometimes substitute 1 can of black eyed peas for the black beans, the bean variety is pretty and tasty. This salad is mild, you can spice it up by adding chili powder, using Rotel tomatoes instead of plain, or adding some fresh jalapeno pepper. I've made it without the garlic and onion for people who don't like those flavors, but it is on the boring side IMHO. I'm getting so I don't measure anything in this anymore, I just grab what I have and mix it up. Oh, and Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn is GREAT in this! Did I mention I love TJs? LOL!

Uncured Ham

We bought a glazed, spiral-sliced, uncured (also known as fresh - not smoked) ready-to-eat ham (about 8 lbs.) from Trader Joe's on sale recently and tonight I warmed it on the Weber grill since it's nearly 85 and humid outside and I didn't want to heat the house even more with the oven on.

OMG - it's the best ham I've ever eaten in my life. Not salty at all, moist, lean, and extremely tasty!

We setup the grill for indirect heat, then put a pan of water on the bottom for moisture. Wrapped the ham in a tight layer of foil, and placed on the grill grate above the water pan (coals on each side) for about 1 hour covered.

I will definitely buy this product again and possibly serve it for the holidays. Much better than a cured ham which is more salty and dry. I'm looking forward to ham sandwiches for days to come!

No affiliation with Trader Joe's, just a big fan. :-)

Bloggers Quilt Festival

The Spring 2010 Bloggers Quilt Festival is now underway, thanks to Amy's Creative Side. I stumbled upon her blog and have had a great time browsing all the blogs and quilt entries, it is truly inspiring! I have not posted to my blog in ages, and this was the perfect opportunity for me to update my look, share a quilt I made, and make a new personal resolution to write nearly every day (well try anyway).

The quilt I'm sharing was made in 2005, and because I'm so busy working, sewing and creating for other people, I rarely get to make anything for myself! This is one of two baby quilts I made in the same style and fabrics. The original was made for my husband's cousin who had a baby boy very prematurely. I loved it so much I made one for myself to keep. The fabric selection is also special to me, it reminds me of my Hilda, a smooth fox terrier who lived to be more than 15 years old. Hilda lived with me before I met my husband and had a family! She is still missed by all of us.

Head on over to Amy's Creative Side to see the rest of the entries in the Bloggers Quilt Festival!

Crockpot Whole Chicken

This super simple technique (can't even call it a recipe really with just 2 ingredients) came from

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slowcooker/

You'll need a whole roasting chicken, and the seasoning of your choice.

Rinse the chicken and pat it dry, season with your favorite flavors, I used Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle. Others have used simply salt and pepper, or paprika. No cooking liquid is necessary.

Place chicken in a large crockpot, cover and cook on high for 6 hours, or low for 8-10 hours, or a combination of both. My chicken was done when it was literally falling off the bone, it was SO moist and juicy! I pulled out the chicken and placed it on a cutting board to cool. I was then able to use just my fingers and a fork to harvest all the tender juicy meat.

The girls and I ate it with mashed potatoes the first night, I then used it for chicken nachos, and also of course chicken sandwiches.

The chicken creates an amazing amount of liquid. I saved the stock, strained it and froze it for future use.

YUM!