Project QUILTING Season 11 - Challenge 11.2

Team Colors

I've followed Project QUILTING in the past, but only as a casual observer.

Until...

Sassy @ Farm Quilter sent me down a rabbit hole.  She posted her project for PQ 11.1 on one of the weekly link-ups that I follow and invited her readers to participate in the Challenge.

Since I have begun, I mean to go on.  With that said, I checked the Challenge post for 11.2 the morning after the release and put on my thinking cap...

I have SEW many fabric scraps!!  Scraps of all shapes and sizes.  Quilting cottons and T-Quilt remnants.  My goal with these challenge assignments is to make some "down-and-dirty" designs to use some of those scraps. This is what happened next...

Insert a chorus of angels singing...

Inspiration struck (again!!!)

I remembered the stack of shirts that came from a friend:

Then, I chose a few to compose my design:

A few more were needed to make it work.  That meant a search through the T-Quilt scrap drawer:

When that didn't produce the "right" shade (of ANY color) I had to re-think my design.  Unfortunately, that particular shad of Bright GREEN doesn't seem to exist in my stash:

Days passed...


I found ONE fabric that felt like is might work:

Less than 24 hours before the deadline...


I took a left turn, deciding to see what I could come up with using only the shirts I had chosen:

That ALMOST worked, but eventually, the top was pieced with some scrap strips of quilting cotton and the backing was prepared:

Quickly running out of time...


I suddenly realized that I needed to layer the pillow top for quilting.  That meant digging in my batting scraps... 

... And searching the scrap bin to produce the quilt sandwich:

Ready to begin a down-and-dirty HUGE allover meander...

... My domestic "quilting" machine had other ideas, producing stitches with terrible tension, but I had no time to troubleshoot:

No worries!  Off to Plan B.  Straight line quilting on my new-to-me 20 year old Pfaff (thank goodness - and DS1 - for this machine!) which is (almost) always up for a round of precision sewing:

With that done, it was time to put a finish on this thing.  For those of you who regularly see me sew, you don't see too much of this...  LOOK!!  This is one application where I actually use pins:

Next, a quick trip around the perimeter and the stitching  was done...

... It was off to trim the stray edges:

Now, the time had come to stuff in one of the random pillows that DS1 was recently complaining about so kindly pointed out when snooping around assessing the state of the sewing room:

Ultimately, the piece for the PQ11.2 challenge was completed:

This sale item from IKEA is finally being put to good use:

In a stroke of brilliance, I even used the hems of the shirts in the "envelope" portion of the pillow.  Here's what the back looks like:

This is the final product...

SEW...


Instead of a wall hanging like my 11.1 project turned out to be, this piece decided that it wanted to be a pillow... Obviously, NOT a pillow for our living room sofa:

Anyway...

When I assembled the pillow,  I actually FORGOT to add my label... AGAIN!!  :o((

But WHY a pillow made from T-shirt scraps, Joyful???

Well, that stack of shirts came from a friend who commissioned me to make THIS quilt for her son.  These few remaining shirts were still being worn when that quilt was made.  He recently graduated from college and I thought a pillow to go with his quilt would be the PERFECT gift.  (Let's hope I'm right.)

Thank you to the quilting gods for inspiring this project.  (OK, so it really MIGHT have had something to do with the fact that DS1 pointed out several pillow forms hiding in various nooks and crannies around the studio when he was assessing the chaos a couple of weeks ago.)  And special thanks to Sassy at Farm Quilter for encouraging me to go on when I was ready to give up with a little less than 18 hours before the deadline.  Without her encouragement, I really would have caved!

There you have it!!  Process, product, and the REAL reason for accepting this Challenge.  I hope you like it.  He DID!!  (When he saw a photo of it not long before I released this post, he was thrilled that these additional shirts will be represented with his memory quilt.)

Mission accomplished (with little more than an hour to spare.)

The finish was particularly sweet since it worked right in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  As you may have noticed, the shirts incorporated were a shade of Bright GREEN and that (along with Light GREEN) is January's Color of the Month.

Follow THIS LINK to the Season 11 overview.  Check back on the Challenge release days (or sign-up to be notified automatically) and there may be one that YOU just can't resist.

It is a SHORT turnaround time!

Depending on the size and complexity of your project, that doesn't HAVE to be insurmountable.  With a little creativity and a few evenings, you really CAN do this!  My project was (really) begun with only ONE DAY until the deadline.

Linking up with Cynthia

for

Oh Scrap!

@

Quilting is more fun than Housework

Until next time...

Challenge accepted!!!

Remember:  If I can do this, YOU can do it, too!

(Plus, there's a spot to post your completed Project QUILTING inspired projects AFTER the deadline for any of the challenges.)