Bluebirds of Happiness, border added

I just finished up the border; you can see on the backside the seams have all been pressed in one direction.  All I need to do now is add the backing, quilt and bind.

Jelly roll quilt, # 2

When learning how to do borders I discovered the jelly roll quilt.  It was so fast that I decided to make one sometime during the sewing of Alex's t-shirt quilt.  I started by buying 3 jelly rolls of 18 pieces each.  I decided to make a queen size quilt this time.  Each roll ended up only being 14" wide.  That's right three rolls at 11.99 each was nit enough.  I bought most of them at 50% off but nit all of them.  Seven altogether so 84/2 =42 plus tax so I'm in it so far for about $55-60.

Jelly roll opened up and ready to sew in strips.

Strips sewn together.  Have to separate, trim, and divide them next.

Still have last Jellyroll to sew then will decide on final layout and determine backing.  I found the cotton batting at Hobby Lobby for around $20.  I'll use a coupon probably a 50% off so it shouldn't cost as much.  I'm trying to better track my time and costs on this one.  I feel like it probably took an hour per each roll but I start and stop during the seeing process so nit really sure. 

Alex's T-Shirt Quilt 1st Official

 

This past June of 2014 I started on my first t-shirt quilt.  It took about 6 months to finish but it sat for many days and sometimes weeks.  I was either not motivated to work on it or got stuck on how to piece it together.  Also for my first quilt it was a king size quilt.  I'll have to see if I can find my progress pictures to post here.  My son was extremely happy to see its completion.  My very first quilt ever was made with my grandmother Ercilia Garcia née Simpson.  It was just some threadbare sheets and blankets that we stitched together by hand with a straight basting stitch.  I don't think we did any binding to the edge just a basting stitch.

So I used a cotton batting and found a quilters shop that has long arm quilting.  I then set the completed quilt with the batting and backing and pinned them together with quilting pins.  I probably could have used another package but it worked okay.  Next I stitched in the ditch to sew them together.  Once finished I went to pick up some blanket satin binding and then hand stitched the edge.

The fabric on back has one spot that kind of gathered and pinched in a weird way.  I felt like I wanted to go back and un-stitch that spot then re-sew it smoothly but Alex didn't care.  There is a spot that I wanted to find a school photo from college and print on a fabric then hand embroider to the 'photo spot' but I'll have to do that later.  There's also a couple of areas that embellishing with an embroidered edge would be nice.  So this could be a work in progress for a few years! Lol. Nah it'll probably stay right how it is!  Done!!

Border strips.

Our Irish Terrier loved sitting and laying on the t-shirts.  Here she is getting ready to lay on them again.  Now I just have to add the borders and binding.

Here it is while I machine stitch in the ditch.

Hand stitching the satin binding.  I think it took me 10 hours for this king size quilt.

All trimmed and ready for the binding.

On the bed!

The back of it.