Reenie's Twist and Shout

Now this is a REAL Christmas quilt! This Mom, Reenie, gives her kids special T-shirts for every Christmas season.

Since the kids have outgrown the shirts, she had us make two very different quilts, reflecting the different personalities of each of her boys. This one needed to be as fun as possible so we chose a 'twist and turn' as our layout with the four corner squares being just a simple striped piecing project. We finished it with a unique quilting pattern using our APQS Millennium longarm machine.

Reenie was fully involved throughout the entire project and personally picked out all the fabrics herself, even though she is not a quilter. Her eye for pattern and color was truly excellent and we were very impressed with the way the diverse fabric patterns came together.

When she picked up the quilts in early December, we received a great early Christmas gift ourselves - tears of joy when she saw the way they had turned out, with hugs all around.

What a great joy - to make someone happy while doing our 'jobs' - in fact, it is not just a job; it is a passion.

Mandy's Phish Quilt

This is a memory quilt made from Phish Rock Concert T-shirts.

Mandy came to us a bit ago with a bag of shirts that she and her now deceased husband had collected as they traveled from concert to concert. She wanted something soft and yet long lasting that would comfort her in the days to come.

We were able to find some lovely hand dyed fabric to use as sashing on the front, using colors that enhanced the Phish shirts. On the back, we used a vibrant batik while incorporating 4 more of the Phish shirts. And added a label with lyrics from their favorite Phish song.

Of course, we finished the quilt by using our APQS Millennium longarm machine to add just the right amount of quilting to bring it all together.

She was very touched and emotional when we presented it to her. It just goes to show how joy can come from wonderful memories and how a 'forever' quilt can come from a bag full of old T-shirts.

Raffle Quilt for UT Chi Omega Sorority

Just a few weeks ago we were approached by a lovely young woman from the Chi Omega sorority at the University of Texas at Austin Texas. She wanted us to make a quilt from her organization's T-shirts to be used as a raffle quilt for their chosen charity, Make A Wish Foundation.

As a way of keeping costs low, we asked Sallie to prepare the shirts by cutting, stabilizing and sizing them which she skillfully did by spending a few Friday mornings working with us in our Studio. We then completed the piecing of it for her and of course, did the quilting of it on our APQS Millennium machine.

Sallie had the quilt in time for the raffle which brought in a decent amount of money that went directly to the support of their wonderful chosen charity.

Do any of your supported organizations have a raffle coming up? Consider this very creative, useful, warm and profitable idea - make a quilt from your old T-shirts!

Memory Quilts as fund raisers

We have found that many people have turned to us to help them take their memories and turn them into quilts, of all forms!

Today, I want to get you thinking about that pile of well worn and well-loved T-shirts that have been sitting around somewhere, gathering dust. Did you know they could possibly be turned into funds to help a good cause???

The one pictured today is going to be a raffle quilt, actually one of three similar ones that we created out of a local elementary school's shirts. They will be raffled off to raise money to support the school and children's activities. Now, isn't that a creative use of those stuffed in drawers?

Actually, these three are only the latest in a series of raffle quilts we have done. One, in 2007, was bought for $5000!!!!!!!!! That's nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

So, think about it. Can your old shirts be turned into something warm, wonderful and most of all filled with memories that can be used as a raffle item for your organization?

Tomorrow, I will show you an incredibly loving quilt from a Mom to her talented daughter. see you then.