I have been following along one of the BEST TUTORIALS EVER at Obsessively Stitching:
I suppose that, technically, this is not my first quilt ever, but the t-shirt quilt is so unique that this is a whole different type of project. This tutorial (really, set of tutorials) is amazing! The whole process is laid out step by step, from what fabrics to buy straight through finishing it off...any questions you might have had about making a quilt, answered. I have the top almost finished. I'm so glad there are people out there in the world so willing to share their talents! Many thanks to Care!

Tah-dah!

This is so satisfying!Since it is so nice and springy outside, and my condo has almost no natural light...I decided to venture outside to take a few pictures of my work. I love the finished effect! I was partway through this project and trying to figure out how to do this on my own, when I saw this post from Maiden Jane and decided, like my boss always says, there's no use reinventing the wheel...so I bought a wonderful pattern from her and learned from her experience! I'm really glad I did, because her way was SOOOOOO much simpler than what I had been planning on doing. I won't give away her secrets, but it was definitely a worthwhile purchase.

And the final result? I have comfortably napped under it several times already, and found it to be very satisfying. Is it perfect? No. But it's mine :)

A (failed?) experiment

My trip to China went amazingly well. The kids were well-behaved, the tour guides were knowledgeable - altogether, I loved the tour, the company, and the experience.

On the crafting front, I've been making good progress on my quilt. The top is almost done!

I love the effect - it's like my life story in a quilt! Of course, cutting up all those t-shirts left me with lots of scraps, so I tried to come up with some ways to use them, including these coasters below.
Last week, I saw this tutorial at an amazing blog called Adventures in Dressmaking. The tutorial explains how to turn a man's shirt into a skirt. The attempt was not flawless - I didn't make the waistband wide enough, so there wasn't enough space to fold it all the way over, so you can see the unfinished edges on the inside. I also attached the waistband backwards, so I had to do a quick switch with the button and buttonhole to make it work.

Despite it's flaws, I think it's really cute, and I would love to wear it - but, sadly, it's WAAAY to small for me to every dream of wearing :( Next time I'll have to get a much larger shirt to start with!!! At least now that I've done it once, hopefully I'll be able to attempt it again and get a wearable result. Not sure what I'll do with this one!