He's Off!

So here he is at MIT after a week of hiking in the White Mountains. A happy guy!

Now He's Ready

DS decided that a t-shirt quilt should have t-shirt pillow cases to go with it! DH found a bunch that he was willing to part with, so then I started sewing. An XL t-shirt is wide enough, but it's a little short, so I just cut the bottoms of a few old ones and attached them to increase the length and presto!!!! Now he can go off to college.

Glue for Binding?

Yes indeed!! I can't take any credit for this. I learned about it from the free videos posted on Sharon Schamber's site www.sharonschambernetwork.com/free_area/free.html
Look for the demo for Binding the Angel (and there are a lot of other good ones to check out as well). Use this on quilts that you plan to wash (I use Elmer's Washable School Glue). I've never used it on a quilt that I didn't intend to wash, so I don't know what would happen if you left the glue in there!
Here's a brief demo:
Sew your binding on as you usually do. Iron it out from the front, so that it will be easier to fold the binding around to the back without leaving puckers on the front.







Then run a small bead of glue (what you see here is probably too much!) in the seam allowance on the edge of the back of the quilt. I use these smaller caps for the glue. You can find them at a craft store. The metal ones leave a clean, small bead of glue but I find it hard to squeeze the glue out when I use them, so I just deal with it and use the slightly larger plastic tip.








Then iron the binding in place!! The heat of the iron sets the glue quickly and it will hold it long enough for you to hand sew it in place. It's especially handy for fixing the corners neatly - just as you would like them to be!!







And the last little hint - I hate making labels, but I do use the alphabet on my machine to stitch my initials and the year into the binding.






Now I'm off to watch some Olympics and finish this binding!

T-Shirt Quilt

So now it just needs the binding! We decided to try making this without any stabilizer (so it would be softer) and it worked! I did quilt it rather heavily (and there are a few hearts hiding in the quilting), but I think it is going to work. I joined the pieces with my walking foot attached, and this kept the seams from distorting and stretching. There are a lot of good memories in this quilt. I can't wait to bind it and wash it to see how soft it will be.....

Sad Eyes

The other day, my son and I started a bit of college shopping. Rulie (that's him in the photo) found the towels we bought and rolled himself up into one of them. How could he know his boy is leaving?!?

Hints

Just a quick hint - These are small things to hold your hair in place - or - if you are like me and have hair so short they would never be needed - you use them to keep your bobbins neat (especially the slippery threads and invisible thread).