Trying Something New: A Quilt!

Early in December I was trying to come up with a great Christmas gift idea for my husband, Ward. I don't know about you, but my husband in not easy to buy gifts for. He either wants expensive electronics (that he would need to pick out for himself) or he just picks things up when he wants them and then there is nothing left for me to give him.

So, back to thinking about something to get to him for Christmas. After a few boring gift ideas, I came up with the idea of making him a t-shirt quilt.

I know the concept of t-shirt quilt isn't new, but for a non-sewer like me it was a pretty big idea.

Ward had a big stack of t-shirts in our closet that he had moved out of his clothes wearing rotation, but he didn't want to part with the shirts. Years ago he has said that he would love to have a t-shirt quilt with all of his shirts. I laughed and said, yes, that would be great, wouldn't it!?!

I did a web search and found a couple of sites (here and here) that gave me guidance on how to start this project.  I also talked to my sister Melanie to get details on the project since she's made them before. It's too bad she lives across the country from me or we could have worked on it together!

I set off to Hobby Lobby with my supply list in hand. Rotary cutter, cutting mat, interface (did you know you can buy it buy the yard?!?), batting and thread. Oh, and I went to Target to buy a grey full sized sheet for the backing on the quilt.

One of the trickiest things about putting this together was that Ward works from home a lot of the time. He luckily has one set day in the office each week that I knew I could freely work. He's in and out of the house the rest of the days to meetings, so I was always listening for the garage door to open and signal that it was time to put the project away.

Luckily I never got caught!

One of the coolest things about making this quilt is that my husband designed about half of these shirts. He loves t-shirt design and did a full line of shirts a few years ago. It was such a fun free time project for him. Hopefully he'll be able to do it again sometime!

One thing I learned was that I really enjoy crafting with paper much more than fabric. Of course I loved the process of making something meaningful for my husband, but I don't think I'll be taking sewing up as a major hobby any time soon.

Success! Ward loves his quilt!

Now I wonder what I will come up with next year for his Christmas present.

Photo Frame Gifts

This month I created a few altered frames for Christmas and baby gifts and now that they are delivered, I can share them with you.

All of the frames came from Hobby Lobby. I like getting frames there because they have a great selection and they are always 50% off.

On the first frame I used the Baby Mine collection from Fancy Pants Designs. Even though I don't have a baby in the house, I find myself using this line a lot with making baby cards and gifts. It's a perfect line to have on hand!

The glass wouldn't pop out of this frame, so I put the paper and chipboard under the glass and then used E6000 glue to attach the little Tim Holtz clip. The clip makes it easy to change out the photo often.

The Baby Mine sticker made a great gift tag by sticking it to patterned paper and then I trimmed around the sticker and wrote a little note on the back.

On this next frame, I pulled the glass out and just altered the background with the Fancy Pants Summer's End line. I really love the colors in this line and think they work well year round.

For my last frame I used the Scrapbook Circle Note to Self kit for the alterations. I love all of the type on the background page. Once again, I glued a clip to the paper so that photos and be easily attached and changed out.

Hope you are enjoying a little relaxation time with your family this week. I've loved having our kids home. Today has been a Lego building and doll playing day. Love it!

Christmas Gift Idea

It's been a while since I've made notebooks and I decided that it was time to make a few for my nieces and nephews for Christmas.

I love that they are personalized and I can be sure that they aren't going to get the same thing from someone else.I love getting use up pieces of my favorite paper on these little notebooks.


Each notebook is 6 x 6 inches.


Each album was mailed with a set of markers, twistables or other fun writing tools.


Hope the kids have fun with them.

My daughter saw me making these and she wanted to know when I was "ever going to make a notebook for her." She has seen me make several of these this year and she has yet to get one for herself. Maybe I need to make one for her stocking!