jack's quilt.

i made a quilt for emma when she was a baby. i had no idea what i was doing... thanks to my friend, amy, i got it done in a week while my husband was out of town on a mission trip to guatemala. she was there every step of the way, so i can't say that i would know what i'm doing now. check her out with her quilt below. it still sits at the foot of her bed, and she takes it when we go out of town. i LOVE it!




it would only be fair to make one for jack... right??? right!


i didn't want it to be too cutesy, so i decided to make it out of some of ian's dress shirts. no dinosaurs, dump trucks, or teddy bears for him. i wanted something that he could grow into and use for many years to come. t-shirts it is!!! i'm lucky that my hubby is a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy.. he doesn't wear dress shirts that often. AND, he has tons of them, so he wouldn't even miss them.

i decided to stick to shirts with a color scheme that i like. so i chose blues and khakis in stripes, plaids, and solids. these shirts will look so much better as a little boy's quilt.. and they will get much more use, too.



i washed all the shirts, pressed them, and cut them up along the sides and the seam along the sleeves. free fabric rocks! next i cut squares... lots and lots of squares. i decided to make them 5 1/2 inch squares and then have 1/4 inch seam allowances to make 5 inch finished squares.



i cut as many squares as i could get out of the backs of the shirts. so i still have the fronts and sleeves for another project. here's another photo of my cutting mat and rotary cutter. these are both time savers and absolutely necessary for straight cuts. i don't know how i would get perfect squares without them.



when i finished cutting, i laid them all out and played with the pattern. this was my favorite.



i am now done piecing all of the squares together. it was difficult to keep all the rows from getting mixed up. i decided to pin the rows to keep them in order. then, for each row, i did the following: sewed squares 1 and 2, then 3 and 4, and then joined those. then i sewed squares 5 and 6, and then added square 7 to square 6. finally, i sewed squares 4 and 5 together and voila! the row was finished!!! i did this 10 times for 10 rows. then, i attached those in the same way... row 1 and 2 together. row 3 and 4 together. then, attached those by sewing rows 2 and 3 together. are you confused yet?? then i sewed 5 and 6 together. then 7 and 8 together. and i decided, what the heck, 9 and 10 together. then pieced those together by joining rows 6 and 7, and then rows 8 and 9. finally, i sewed rows 4 and 5, and then, the entire top was finished! so much work, so much to keep straight in my head, but it was totally worth it! don't you think??


i'm taking a break now, but the next step is sandwiching the top, batting, and bottom. i am going to pin as much as i need to, and then quilt along each stitch. more on that later. stay tuned for more!!