The first

Since I cannot post any pictures of the progress on the secret project I thought I would post a picture of the first t-shirt quilt I made. It was for myself and I sleep under it every night. I forgot to look at the date of when I made this, but I know it was at least 14 or 15 years ago.

The secret project will be my 18th piece or quilt I have made with t-shirts.

The other first I will show you is my first flannel quilt I made in 1999.

I had worked at the quilt shop in Charm and saw all these wonderful plaid flannels. I brought some home and threw it in the washer as soon as I got home. It took me 10 hours to put the center section and some of the border for this quilt. I sewed all 13 strips of flannel together into two sets with the strips stepped back kind of like this

I then cut the strips at a 45 degree angle

Then I sewed the cut strips into chevron pairs. The stripes don't exactly match in my sketch, but you get the idea. One thing I had to be careful of was that flannel, which is already stretchy, really is stretchy when cut on the bias! I mean I would pick up a strip and it would grow in front of my eyes if I didn't support the unit.

Here is a detail shot

The plaid I used for the outside border was red and white, but I dyed it. I thought the red was too bright and the white just glared. Overdyeing it with gray toned it down. I did cut the binding on the bias and used the same fabric as the outer border.

I have now made 10 flannel quilts that I can think of off the top of my head. I know I have enough flannel yardage and 9 patch units to make 5 or 6 more including the one I already have on the design wall.

Have a great weekend!