How many things can you make from a recycled cotton shirt?

I know that I have not shared much recently - life has been hectic and most quilting has been work related making sample blocks and quilts for classes.

However this is a little treat I have been meaning to share for a while. All the items in the following photos were made by Maureen, a creative and prolific quilter who attends my Tuesday class and does not have a blog of her own so it is my duty to share her work with you all.

She started with a red white and blue men's shirt that she bought at the International Quilt Day Event.

She added some plain white and blue star fabric and made a quilt.

 Here is a close up.

 Then she made a bag - here is one side, note the button holes in the handle!

 This is the other side - the label from the shirt has made the flag on the yacht!

 Then she made a cushion.

 A couple of pincushions made from the scraps!

 And finally this cute little fella!

 Look at his coat with tails made from the collar tips!

Awesome work Maureen!

Maureen's 'Hard Collar' Bag.

Maureen is a student in my Tuesday Patchwork group and this week she brought this bag that she had made out of the collars, cuffs and button bands from recycled shirts. I was so impressed with the design that I just had to share it with you. Maureen is a very keen, prolific quilter and she has already made a couple of quilts using the fabric from all these shirts.

The front is made of the collars and button bands - she has kept the buttonholes behind each button!

The top of the bag is made with the parts that have the stiffener fused to them which means that it gives a really firm top to the bag. The decorative flaps with the toggles are made from cuffs.

Here is the inside pocket rescued from another shirt! Maureen called the bag 'Hard Collar' because she broke a needle when she went over one of those plastic tabs found in the ends of some collars.

I'm sure you will agree that this is a fabulous bag. The only sad thing for me is that I recently had a clear out and threw away loads of collars and cuffs from the shirts I have recycled into quilts. I really want to make one of these bags!

Next border on Maverick Stars Quilt

This morning I completed the next border on Maverick Stars. I have used the same zig zag border that I used on the Laura Ashley quilt. I really like the framing effect of this border but of course you do need to get your measurements correct to get the triangles to fit.

Here is a closer view of the corner. One of the things that stands out to me is the randomness of the stripes on the white zig zags. At one time I would have hated this and tried to get the stripes to match but now I think it adds to the scrappiness and the design as a whole.
I do want to look into working with stripes more as this accounts for most of the recycled shirts that I love to use!

There will only be one more border which will be scrappy bricks in the blue fabrics. I hope that this will frame the quilt nicely and help to use up all the bits of blue I have left over. I have decided that there is enough black and white spot fabric in the quilt now.

I took this photo a couple of days ago. Most of my sons' clothing is black and this shows what happens if you wash a couple of hundred red charm squares in with your dark wash!

Maverick Stars Quilt

This quilt was started in February this year and is another that was abandoned, partly due to time and partly due to being undecided about the next border.
I was really pleased with it when I first made it so I do really want to get it to the quilting stage as it will be great for practising my machine quilting and also it will make a great quilt for a child. It would be lovely to have some quilts 'in hand' for when a gift is needed.

The stars are a Bonnie Hunter design from quiltville.com, they are made from a selection of 2 inch squares.

This was where I had got to in February and stopped. This was 25 inches square. First I decided I wanted a rectangular quilt not a square.

So I have added sections to each end, this now measures approx 25 x 33 inches. Next border coming soon! Luckily I have found all the fabrics I was using!

Maverick Stars Quilt

My quilting progress has been quite slow recently - I have been working on my Double Delight mystery quilt - but on Wednesday decided to have a go at Bonnie Hunter's maverick stars. I had been cutting some of my scraps into 2 inch squares so I used them. The blocks are not as scrappy as they could be as I used the same placement for each one but at least the stars came out different. However apart from the spotty all the fabric is repurposed/recycled from shirts. Then I joined them with some hand dyed turquoise squares (my favourite colour!)

Then last night I added a spotty border. The squares were 5 inches and this little top is just 25 inches square but will make a lovely baby quilt. Haven't decided on the outer border - I may do scrappy flying geese because I love them.

This week has been half term and DS1 has been staying in York with some student friends for most of it. This has given us both a bit of breathing space away from each other, given me time to fumigate his room and helped him realise what a great time he will have if he sucessfully completes his college course and goes to Uni. He arrived home last night with a gift for me from my favourite shop!! And he thanked me for cleaning his room!!

Forgot to post these earlier - bought in the flea market in Leeds on Thursday. I actually got 5 boxes each with 8/9 reels of thread - most are unused. A great vintage find!

And finally just as I sat down to write this post - the sun was setting over Barnsley - what a lovely sky!

Cath Kidston Bag and Mystery Quilt Update.

I have finally completed Step 1 of Double Delight, Bonnie Hunter's New Year Mystery Quilt. There are 120 of these 3.5 inch blocks! The layout is not how it will be in the quilt but I thought it was better than just showing one block. I have had loads of help from the cats while doing this quilt but this photo shows Maisy during one of her shifts!

This was one of my Christmas books and I decided to make one of the bags from it which was actually completed on Dec 30th - I just forgot to show it.

Unusually the pattern calls for both heavyweight and quilting cotton so I was able to use some heavier cotton that I bought for £1 per metre on Rotherham Market some time ago. I really liked it when I saw it so bought 2 metres. When I got home I discovered that it was actually a Cath Kidston fabric called Pop Flowers. The next week at the stall I asked for some more and he told me that it had all gone - someone had told him it was Cath Kidston and had bought it to sell on ebay! So now I study the Cath Kidston catalogue religiously so that if any more crops up I will recognise it straight away!

Most of the other fabrics are from repurposed shirts except the lining which is a vintage cotton curtain I bought from a car boot for 30p.

It is a bucket style bag with loads of space in it - I have put a couple of press studs on the top binding so it can be folded in when not in full use. The bottom is one of those funny folded triangles which I am not sure I really like but I do like the bag as I feel that it does capture the vintage shabby chic look I was trying to achieve.

Repurposed Fabric.

One of my greatest pleasures in patchwork is reusing fabric. I firmly believe that patchwork should not be just for those who can afford to buy fabric at £10 per metre but should be accessible to everyone. More importantly I much prefer working with repurposed fabric particularly if it is also vintage. I almost never buy fabric at full price - I buy from discount fabric stores such as Kisko in Leicester and Aberkhan in Mostyn as well as a couple of outlets in Yorkshire such as The Shuttle in Bradford which can be found at many of the quilt shows.

Anyway to get back to the point - for the last couple of weeks DH and I have been to our local Sunday market which has lots of second hand stalls, and I have bought quite a few items for repurposing. Shirts are my favourite but I also like skirts, curtains and even baby clothes. Of course all are 100% cotton and my golden rule is never to pay more than 50p for a clothing item. I will pay more sometimes for curtains!
Here are 4 shirts I bought yesterday. One of them is even a designer label!
What I need now of course are some darker blues to go with them!
I do also buy from charity shops but often I find their prices too high for me - with the exception of vintage Laura Ashley which I am always on the lookout for! Oh for the thrift shops of America! - I could spend an entire holiday just looking round them - however I would not be able to afford the excess baggage charge!