Monday, June 16, 2014

The T-Shirt Quilt and Cuteness

First let me thank everyone who gave me advice on t-shirt quilts, I read everything and took your advice and got it done. After seeing a picture on pinterest I decided to leave out any sashing and not do straight rows, lots of Y seams, yikes!

This is the original layout I came up with, that's laid out on my king size bed, so you can get an idea of the size. Of course as I sewed them together the lay out changed a few times as the seams ate up some of the size and things didn't fit.

This is the finished quilt, It was big and surprisingly heavy, I quilted each block individually, some just outlined, others had straight line quilting, the one time I sewed into one of the "plasticy" numbers, my thread broke. 

She had also saved his sheets and pillowcases from his childhood and I used them for the back, fussy cutting those strips of football and basketballs really added a lot. 

I'm ridiculously proud of it and have a lot of respect for t-shirt quilters, it's not easy. I won't be jumping in to make another one right away, although I did promise my daughter one from all of her sorority shirts, she's going to wait :)

Now for the cuteness. On Saturday my daughter agreed to drive an hour south, while I drove an hour north to meet up at the zoo. Thank goodness she's indulgent with me because no one else would go, everyone just looked at me like I was crazy, I'm pretty sure that Zoo Miami in June is mentioned as a level in Dante's Inferno. Plus as I drove out of the Key's, traffic trying to get in was backed up for 20 miles, literally. If you live here you know to just hunker down on holiday weekends. 

But this is why we went!
Lion babies were finally on display.

Look how adorable they are

This guy is two months older than the others, his mama died and there was a lot of concern about him, but his aunt took him into her family, even the father lion has accepted him :)

This was our favorite, smaller than the rest she would follow along behind them, get about half way and just plop down and watch the people. 
I took over 150 pictures of them, LOL, well worth the heat to see so much beautiful cuteness.

Later gators,
Dana

10 comments:

  1. Total chubby cubby sweetness! That is a great t-shirt quilt, and I love the back too. I can totally see grandsons #1 and 2 asking for one of these someday. We would take a tiny bit of Dante's Inferno up this way - the last few days have been up to 15 degrees below normal and they're predicting some snow in the mountain passes today.

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  2. Oh my gosh, I was going to tell you how much I like your t-shirt quilt, but then the lion cubs totally distracted me. That is a great quilt, and the lion cubs just make me want to hug them and squeeze them.

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  3. Your T shirt quilt is just fabulous...great job!

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  4. Great T-shirt quilt. I have 2 boxes of T-shirts but haven't gotten around to making quilts yet. The lion cubs are just adorable. Worth the trip and traffic and heat for that cuteness.

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  5. Those cubs are so cute! Years ago, when we lived in Tulsa, we had season passes to the zoo. The tshirt quilt turned out great. I still have to make one. My niece 'precut'all the shirts (even after I told her not to, and why not) and I've been afraid to open the bag and see what is there.

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  6. Awww, what cuteness overload. How adorable those cubs are. I love how you laid out the t-shirt quilt. The back is fabulous with sheets & pillow cases from his child hood. It's a wonderful quilt.

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  7. What a wonderful quilt, Dana!! That is sure to be a tresured heirloom!! I have never tried a Y seam and in listening to quilters talk about them - NOT!! Your pictures of cuteness made me smile and smile and smile!! :-)

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  8. How cool! The lion cubs are adorable. Great job with the T-shirt quilt. Love the childhood sheets on the back. I've got 2 or 3 t-shirt quilts coming up some time that my daughters want made up. Probably hit those in late falls, at least to get them organized.

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  9. I missed this post! The t shirt quilt turned out great! Love all the thought you put into it and how you put it together. Congrats on a good thing.
    Lion cubs.....wow, so great to see all of them. Well worth the traffic trials of south Fl!

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  10. this is the T-SHIRT quilt????? I am in awe!!! maybe I should just send you all of Zachs tshirts and have you do his!!! LOVE it! I dont dare show Zach this because he will want his done NOW!!! I will be pounding you for info soon regarding the help when I do mine!

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