Slowly, but surely

I managed to get one more side of the binding hand sewn last evening. I am finding that stitching thru the flannel backing and binding is taking a bit longer. The red flannel is a very good quality fabric I bought a long time ago at Miller's Dry Goods when Mrs. Miller was still alive. She use to buy mill ends and this had to be flannel from some high end manufacturer. It is almost like felt. A lot of the flannel you get these days is so poorly made - thin and loosely woven. I will get the last side done this weekend and move on to the next project.

Someone in the neighborhood is having a yard sale today and tomorrow. I will be hitting it at lunch to see if they have any t-shirts. Tomorrow I plan on hitting a Goodwill and a resale shop. Vicki from Field Trips in Fiber found me two Bob Marley shirts and Glenda from quiltswissy/BlogSpot.com found me a bunch of LSU t-shirts! I will post pictures once I get them. Thank you so much ladies!

The weather is suppose to be cooler on Sunday so I will make the time to work in the yard. It needs it bad!

Have a great weekend!

Halfway done

I am halfway done with stitching on the binding on the flannel quilt. I had worked on it at lunch time as well as after work. I don't know if I will get it finished tonight or not, but it will be done soon.

Binding the flannel quilt

It took me longer than I thought it would to sew on the binding on the flannel quilt. Why? Well, it is heavy and big. I first gave the quilt a light pressing especially at the edges, lined up the binding one side at a time, pinned the binding, and then sew that side. I would repeat the process for each edge. Next was mitering the corners and then trimming each side. Lastly I pressed the binding and gently poked out the corners. Of course each time I worked on a different side it was like wrestling a bear turning all that fabric and weight to the side I needed to work on. Me and my big quilts! This one measured 84" x 105.5" before I started quilting it.

So now I am all ready to start hand stitching the binding.

I have already started thinking about what my next project will be. I have a music theme quilt pin basted and partially quilted. It is on the UFO list so maybe I will get it back out and start on it.

T-shirts and flannel quilt

I gathered t-shirts last night from closets and drawers. I put them in piles and here is what I have: from left to right front row - Springsteen, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Jimmy Buffett, back row - a pile of scraps, one Cleveland Indiana shirt, a pile of odds and ends including one shirt of each AC/DC, Kiss, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, Hendrix, and left over pieces and parts from the Akron Art Prize quilt. This is a good starting point and I was glad to get these organized so I could see what I had.

See the writing on the top R.E.M. shirt? Mike Mills autographed it for me.

I finished quilting the flannel quilt last evening and got started getting the binding ready. I don't think I have enough red to go around the quilt which is fine. I have lots of leftover pieces of flannel so I will just add something else tonight when I get the binding sewn on.

UFO stats and progress on the flannel quilt.

I am behind in posting my UFO update on Vicki's Field Trips in Fiber blog so here I go. I looked at my list of UFO projects and didn't think I complete any lately, but here I had put my t-shirt quilt for the Akron Art Prize on the list and that did get finished!

So now here are my stats as of the end of August:
I had 40 projects in progress at the beginning of the 2015 UFO project
I have completed eight of the 40 projects or 20%
I did start a new project which was my niece's t-shirt quilt
No UFO's were trashed
I have one more UFO in progress which is my drunkards path flannel quilt.

I am now 95% done quilting the DP quilt! Here is the area I still need to quilt. I should be able to get this done easily in the next day or two and then get the binding on.

I probably would of had this quilt done except I spent my Saturday from 2 pm until 8:30 p.m. helping out with the band. What a mess. It rained and then it poured. Everything and everyone was soaked. The city did not provide tents for the band to stage their equipment so we had to put up our own. Our equipment was sitting in the wet streets. There were no lights at the stage and it was getting dark very quickly. We had a few people stay and listen. Some of them were standing under the canopy at the grocery store and others were huddled under umbrellas.

I walked about a half mile to my car and headed home. I threw everything including my coat and shoes into the wash as I peeled it off, then took a hot shower and went to bed. The temperature was only about 57 degrees so it was a cold rain. We have another gig in two weeks, but I think it is indoors.

I did go around the house collecting t-shirts from my drawers and pulling the shirts from the clothes from my Dad's house. I will post pictures tomorrow of those. I was please how many I found. It is a good start toward making some pieces. I think about this all the time and I am writing down my ideas about what I want to make for the exhibit. I did get an email from Vicki and she found me a couple of Bob Marley shirts at the Goodwill. Thank you Vicki! Those will be a great addition! It is always fun to score something!

Akron Art Prize 2015 and HELP! I need you!

I have been invigorated! I am now on a mission! I need your help!

Last night I went to the meet and greet for the artists at the Nightlight venue for the Akron Art Prize where my piece was hanging. It was a fun event and I received a lot of wonderful comments about my piece. One of the volunteers told me that several people have asked the price of my piece. I didn't remember that I even put a price on it and she said there was a price in the book. I fell in love with this piece all over again when seeing it hanging at the venue so I am not sure I can part with it now! I asked her what price I put on it. She looked it up and it was $2,200.00! Wow, that is ambitious! I guess I had a feeling 5 months ago that I wouldn't want to sell it! Here it is hanging in the space.

This is where I need your help!
I was asked lots of questions on how I put it together. Of course I had my nifty sample to show which helped. One fellow who works for a gallery in town asked if I would be interested in having a show! Of course I said yes, but I need a body of work. I have one other piece made with t-shirts, but I need a lot more! That is where I need your help. I need more - a lot more - t-shirts for constructing more pieces! I will be spending more time looking for t-shirts at Goodwill, yard sales, and resale shops, but I have found that the good stuff is few and far in-between. That is where you all come in. The more eyes the better! For your help I need to know what I can do in return for finding me shirts and spreading the word in blogland: 1. just pay you for what you find? 2. barter something from my stash? 3. have a giant giveaway? What would entice you?

I would love to find more shirts with bands on them and multiples of the same shirt would be fabulous! I also need to make the show eclectic so pieces with a theme would be in order such professional bicycling racing (such as Tour de France), Harley Davidson, Bruce Lee, the Cleveland Indians (since I am from Ohio and I have seem many of these in the Goodwill, now I will have to buy them!), to name a few. I have a wide range of interests so you never know what strike a bell with me! I think I now have about 4 or 5 R.E.M. shirts so I can see one piece with an R.E. M. theme if I could obtain a few more. That would be a cool piece.

On Saturday my nephew's band plays.

Working the merchandise booth and roadie for the band, hitting a few places to look for t-shirts, and working on my flannel quilt will be what my weekend consists of. What ever your plans are have a wonderful weekend!

Akron Art Prize 2015 sample and progress on the Flannel Quilt

I didn't go to quilt group last night because I felt lousy. I was out in the heat too much yesterday, my head hurt, and I was tired. I did get a little bit more quilted on the flannel quilt. I would say I am now 45% done.

I quit working on the flannel quilt so I could make my sample for tonight. If anyone asks I will now be able to show them my process. I even bound one side!