Lessons Learned!

     While working on our summer project of making T-shirt quilt's my best friend Jessica and I have learned a lot of new things!  We'd never quilted before when we started, so we read up on it on the internet and dove right in!  Here is a list of things that we wish we knew before we started!  I hope this helps someone else!

1. Stretchable Fabric Transfers are not better for quilting, just use the regular ones!  Cotton Transfers are even better if you don't mind spending the extra money to get them!

2. If you decide to put pictures on your quilt, then back the white fabric with iron-on batting before you iron the picture onto the fabric itself. This works much better and keeps the pictures from getting messed up or twisted when sewing them on to the quilt.  Another option is to use Cotton transfers, they are more expensive, but you get to skip finding a white t-shirt and putting backing on it!

3. Quilts eventually become huge (and heavy), it really helps to have a friend near by to help you turn and guide it through the sewing machine!  It is possible to do it alone, but I had problems with the weight of the quilt pulling it in the wrong direction and messing up my stitches.

4. The thread color doesn't really matter (except for the edges) because you can't see it on the outside!

5. It's a good idea to change the foot on your sewing machine if more than one came with your machine!  I only have the normal foot(and it did work), but from what I've been told a walking foot is a very handy thing to have when quilting!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I would love some more tips if anyone would like to share with me!

Sincerely,
Brittney

GRE fun!

Hello everyone, here is what i've been working on for the last 3 months.  The good news is that it is finally over!  I got the score I needed on the GRE!  I must say that being able to see your score instantly is pretty awesome!  These are pictures of my walls at work.  I taped many of my vocabulary flashcards to them to help me study!  I definitely learned a lot of new words!  The sad part is that out of the ~300 new words I studied, only 2 of them were on the test!  Oh well, all that matter is that i'm DONE!

Cute Birdie!

Happy Monday!  I made this card when trying out my new Cricut Cartridge-Create a Critter!  I love the bright colors! 

I was also playing around with my new Gelatos from Faber Castelle.  I used an orange gelato to color the edge of the stamp.  It worked very well.  I can't wait to see what else the getatos can do!

Materials: Cricut Create, Creat a Critter Cricut Cartridge, Sweethearts Cricut Cartridge, The Paper Studio Pearls, The Paper Studio Cardstock, Recycled ribbon, Faber Castelle Gelatos

Gigantic Scrapbook page.....or.....Quilt????

Since around the end of May my best friend, Jessica, and I have been working on T-Shirt Quilts.  We heard about the idea and decided that it was the perfect way to "keep" all of our t-shirts that hold memories from high school without having them in a bag in the attic!  Then Jessica came up with the idea of putting pictures on the quilt with the t-shirts, she is a genius!  

So, with a plan in mind we began our quilts!  We've sewed before, but never quilted, so this has been a new experience for us!  I must say that I now have a LOT of respect for quilters!  Now every time I see a quilt I can't help but wonder how long it took someone to make it!   

This is as far as I've gotten!  First we decided how big we wanted each t-shirt square, mine are 13 x 13.  Then we ironed batting onto the back of all ~50 of our t-shirt squares and used a rotary knife to cut them into the correct size.  

Next was the process of choosing which pictures we wanted on each of our quilts.  Jessica had no trouble choosing a few, but I on the other hand, had over a hundred before the first cut, hahaha!  Then Jessica had another great idea!  She suggested that I put a border of pictures around the quilt since I was having trouble narrowing it down!  This is what you see at the top of my first finished row of t-shirt squares and I really love it!  I'm also putting pictures in the middle of the quilt where there would have been plain, empty space.

Now that the quilt is beginning to come together Jessica and I can't help but laugh because it is looking more and more like a gigantic, very warm, scrapbook page!

Have a great day!

Brittney

Welcome Hoppers!

 youngcraftersunite.com

Happy Friday everyone!  Thanks for Stopping by today.  I'm so excited for the opportunity to be a part of this very special blog hop!  My age makes me a young crafter (Twenty-one!), but crafting makes me feel like an excited kid!  I love the rush of getting so excited when shopping for new supplies and then creating something!

One of my favorite things, other than purple of course, is embossing!  I recently learned how to emboss and it is my new fascination!

I made this card with the thought that the colors of alcohol ink I chose would look "springy", but they ended up looking more like fall!  Thats ok though, there are still butterfly's and pretty flowers in the fall!

 Materials: Ranger Craft Sheet, Ranger Heat It Craft Tool, Zing embossing Powder: Charcoal, Stamps: Inkadinkado Doodle Flowers and Patterned Bugs, Stamps: The Paper Studio: Every Day expressions, HP Glossy Photo paper, Pre cut A2 Card base from Michaels, Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks: Purple Twilight, Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, Recollections flowers, VersaMark Dazzle ink

This next card I made for my mom for mother's day and it is one of my favorites!  I love the elegant look of the silver scrolls in the background!  I was just trying out my new stamp and the silver embossing powder and I ended up with this!

Materials: A2 card base from Michaels, Silver copy paper from Office Depot, Stampabilities: Cling rubber stamp: ornate, Distress ink, dusty concord, and tumbled glass, Ranger Heat it craft tool, Zing Silver embossing powder, UTEE embossing powder, Tim Holtz Alcohol ink, Stream and Wild Plum, recycled ribbon

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I'd really love your feedback and comments, it's always good to improve or know what i'm doing right! 

Next please visit Madison at www.funkycards.blogspot.com/

and just in case anyone is going backwards, hahaha, please visit Anna K. at afkeyes.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone has a great day!

Brittney