recycled quilt

Ive been working on more tee shirt quilts. I love using recycled fabrics - and am learning to cut better and tp piece better. Tee shirts can be so streatchy. I am learning!

I am in love with cool weather -- I get depressed for a week or so knowing its comming but, then when its here I get really happy!! I love quilt weather! 

Ive been going crazy for strip quilts - I have so much fabric here at the house. This process is a great way to use up smaller pieces and HIDE some uglies. When I first started quilting I was buying new fabrics - Im trying to get all of those used up also. I have let my collecting fabric totally take over my little house. Im feeling like its too much and I want some of my space back. Ive been feeling a little down - I am going through some stuff and the end of the summer is a sad few weeks for me. Of course, the Drag Queen Quilter has real (REAL) long man nails. I have no idea why I love long fingernails. I just do. I used to chew and eat the sides of my fingers till they would bleed and be infected. Its was gross. So, now that I quilt and have to look at my hands all the time I like to have them (sorta) nice looking. I also let them get gross and unpainted - but keep them pretty long. I signed up for classes today - I think this is the last year of working o...

I made this strip quilt using the process that people are using to make the strip quilts in the jelly roll race. Except - I cut my own pieces from my stash and added solids and prints! I cut 4 inch wide strips and then slashed them into whatever length-- and then, did the end to end, to end - to end ... I LOVE the results. I have another in the works and more planned. One of the best things about this style of quilt is that I have been able to hide lots of patterns that i dont like as well that have been taking up space on my shelves! This quilt is made from recycled fabrics - with some additions from "scrap bags" that a local fabric shop sells.. I see some Amy Butler in there -- so this quilt is more 100% salvage than recycled.

I decided to turn some of my old tee-shirts into small quilted pieces. Im planning on using them for place mats and wall hanging's -- I know thats boring. Im also going to use them modern crochet things. You know, Il put them under plants. Ill put them on the back of chairs. Ill also use them as tea/snack treys. They can be on my bureau, under lamps - EVERYWHERE!

i dont use pins. i think they are a waste of time. i dont use them to piece and i dont use them when i quilt. everything will work out fine - just sew! i dont like tucks - but i dont beat myself up if i have tucks .. finish quilts! thats the point.

i use everything fabric in my quilts. my neighbor tossed a giant bag of used painting clothes on the sidewalk last summer. i brought the whole bag up here and boxed it up for "later." I loved the textures of the paint. but had no sewing skills and did not want to mess up the fabric. this is a blog about how I used the heavy sweaters, and sweat-material as batting. here are a few pics... i just cut up the material at the seams and lay one piece in at a time. i dont pin my quilts to quilt them. i HATE pins. its easy to lay in some thick fabric - sew over it - then lay in more.. repeat, repeat. after putting the layer of "batting" inside the quilt - flop the top back over and quilt away. with enough stitching - or tight enough channeled quilting those inside pieces are not going anywhere. i sometimes use scraps as batting also - i dont worry about making a flat inside because i like lumpy quilts. i dont try to have a perfect coverage either. i jus...

  i made this quilt from old red and white sheets. it has a blanket on the inside - and another old sheet on the back. its channel quilted in narrow lines. usually when i channel quilt i will use a longer stitch and quilt as thin or thick lines as i please. a nice part about using old blankets a batting is ... you dont have to worry about them falling apart in the quilt the way that batting that is new will fall apart if its not quilted to death. think about how cheap polyester comforters get balls of batting in them.. i did not measure or worry about stripe size, i just tore apart the white and red sheet then used a small stitch to sew the stipes together. easy.