Almost ready to quilt

Last week while waiting for my backing fabric to arrive, I pulled out the last shirts I bought at the thrift store.  At least a month had passed since I bought them, and I only remembered what one of them looked like.

                The one I remembered is a man’s Hawaiian shirt.  I told my 5 year old I would make something cool for her out of it.  Here’s the before pictures: 

                I first took the pocket off, then cut the shirt off below the sleeves, put the pocket back on (in a different spot), sewed the front closed, made a casing, and finally added elastic.  She put her clean, new skirt on and went outside to make mud pies.

                The bag also contained 4 t-shirts.  I pulled them out one by one and was quite surprised at what awesome colors I bought!  For the past year, I have been making pants, shorts, and bloomers out of old t-shirts.  We usually have shirts around the house, and my mom donates her shirts to me, but no one in my family seems to buy vibrant colors.  The thrift store has every color imaginable for $.50 or $1.  Size doesn’t really matter because my little girls are still really little. 

                In my bag I found a red shirt with an Allis Chalmers tractor on it.  Seriously?!  How did I forget I bought a shirt like that?  And what do I do with it now?  I can’t make shorts because that will ruin the image.  I’ll have to figure it out later because my backing fabric arrived (along with the fabric for summer quilt #2).

                The “Broken Pieces” song has come on in the car a couple of times in the last few days (check my post from June 2, if you haven’t listened to the song yet).  My little girls yell at me to turn the stereo up.  I can’t help but smile, and then I think about how hilarious we must look, the three of us, windows down, stereo cranked, singing loud.

                I added a border to the quilt top.  I really struggled with whether or not that was a good idea, but it's done now and really, I think it looks good.  After that, I taped the backing fabric to the floor; put the batting on top of that, and then the quilt top.  I pinned it all on Friday thinking I could begin quilting that afternoon, but it didn’t work out.

                I listened to the Sideonedummy Storytellers Podcast while I pinned it.  So far I have listened to episodes 2, 3, and half of 4.  Episodes 2 and 3 are amazing.  Steve Soto tells a story in Episode 2!  I was laughing out loud and nodding my head in agreement over and over again listening to these two episodes.  If you get a chance have a listen: