T-Shirt Quilt and Project Life Week 2

I've been having so much fun with the new Glitz Designs Color Me Happy line. Seriously loving those bright and cheerful colors! Today I want to share both a layout and Project Life spread where I used the Color Me Happy line.

 This layout uses one of my favorite photos from Christmas morning. It's one of my husband holding up the t-shirt quilt I made for him. He was totally surprised! He's not always the easiest to buy gifts for, so I was happy to put this together for him.

There are so many fun bits and pieces in the Color Me Happy line. I love the Happy Paper Garland and I'm pretty sure you will be seeing that garland on lots of projects until I finally use it all up. 

The paper I used for the background of this page has the who, what, when and where incorporated into the paper design. It was fun to add the journaling with stickers and work the placement of the preprinted journaling space into the page layout.

Next up for today is a Project Life spread I put together. 

Once again, the bright and cheerful colors make me so happy! The big "today" on the peek a boo transparency was a perfect layer for adding the date to the spread. 

One of my favorite embellishments on page is in one of the bottom pockets where I cut apart the "happy" from the paper garland and placed it over the big brown polkas. Have I mentioned that I love that Happy Paper Garland?

The Glitz 6 X 6 paper pad was just the prefect size for this spread.  The new 6 X 6 pads are so cool because (1) the papers are double sided and (2) in addition to favorite 12 x 12 designs shrunk down, they have unique designs that are not part of the 12 X 12 paper collection. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Lisa

T-Shirt Quilt Layout Supplies

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Patterned Paper: Stripe, Hearts

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy"Rainbow Stripe Washi Tape

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Paper Garland

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Journaling Stickers

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Giant Rhinestones

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Woodgrain Washi Tape

Glitz Designs Teeny Metallic Gold Alpha

Project Life Supplies

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" 6 X 6 Paper Pad

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Whatnots

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Peek a Boos

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Patterned Paper: Bits and Pieces

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Rainbow Washi Tape

Glitz Designs Teeny White Alpha

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.