Another journal

Over on Tumblr I encountered a great fibre arts bingo post, The past couple of years I’ve tried to be better about integrating successfully (starting and finishing) the multitude of fibre craft I work in back into my life. Often I glom onto a particular type of craft for a period (embroidery, that time I sewed along at home a Project Runway season, etc) and after the burst of obsession the method is sort of folded into daily life.

This both is great (I work in a lot of disciplines, I can’t focus on them all at once), and frustrating because I will feel like I’ve “forgotten” a thing, left it by the wayside. Which is silly. I feel like I never do fibre craft but in the past couple of years I’ve mended a coat with decorative embroidery, sewn multiple pairs of pants, crocheted a sweater. What is real though is I have so much craft stash. Too much. And I sort of would like to move *objects* next time we move, rather than raw material. So! Gotta integrate fibre arts into my more daily life, along with writing and whatnot.

A bingo card felt like a great way to do this and this square speared me directly:

Finish a WIP that’s been lingering for over a year.

Maybe you’ve seen me mention the t-shirt scrap quilt I’m working on, at some point over the past couple of years. I have saved many beloved t-shirts that were worn out or that we’d grown out of, or were from ancient eras that didn’t need to be remembered with clothing. Previously, I’ve turned t-shirts into yarn and made them into throw rugs. But some shirts aren’t well suited for that, or I want to preserve the images on them. So, why not a quilt?!

I can’t remember when I last worked on the quilt last so the first step was pulling the bag of it out and seeing where I was.

Turns out I had it mostly finished before being distracted and not finishing it. Like an asshole! I was annoyed but grateful. At least there was little left to do of my least favourite thing: piecing. NOT that I am piecing this nicely or neatly or with thoughtful pattern. Pieces are going together so they fit and make a final lap-blanket shape. That is all. I am not a precision crafter.

I made a list of what needed done next: finish the last couple of blocks and sew them together so they’d achieve lap-blanket size and shape, figure out what I was doing for the back, sew the sides together, bind it, quilt it.

Easy enough to finish the front. I’d, in the recent past, done a bit of a closet clean that had pulled aside a couple of t-shirts and those were all I needed to finish the blocks and get it blanket-sized.

I am a small enough person and I live in Southern California. I am cold all the time but acknowledge that sometimes all you need is a light blanket that is two layers of t-shirt. For the back I took some more boring shirts and just made big squares with them, sewed them together and called it good.

I hope you are enjoying the dimly lit shots, by the way. Anyway, I sewed the sides together, right sides out because I was going to bind it. Quilts are bound, I think? It felt right. I sewed together so much scrap and made about 200 inches of t-shirt scrap strip. Then. Then I had to cut 200 inches to a consistent width. Thankfully, there’s the thumb trick (using the first joint of the thumb as a ruler or guide when cutting or sewing).

Then it was ironing 200 inches, then sewing it all on, not that neatly. But the thing is, neatness literally doesn’t affect how cosy a blanket is. I know my skills and it has never been sewing on binding neatly. But then?! It was done, it is a blanket.

It’s still not technically a quilt as it is not yet quilted. But I was able to hunt down some quilting thread and start working on it. It’ll take a bit, because did you know (I knew, I knew this going in and yet), t-shirt fabric absolutely sucks to do this kind of stitching in? I’m also quilting it in a pictorial way. The final thing is going to be messy and imperfect and also wonderful. Memories of a life in this thing.

I can’t really check this space off the bingo card yet, but I nearly can. And I quilt a bit every night so it won’t take too much longer until this is done done done.