Category Archives: Love Therapy

One Quilter Can Make a Difference

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

I have worked hard this year at trying to make one charity quilt in between other quilt projects I have created.  For instance, if I am working on a quilted gift for a loved one, I make that gift and then make a charity quilt, then make another quilt, etc. etc.

My own quilting is about me, whether those quilts are made for others, made for my websites or made for a magazine.  I’ve designed them, I’ve chosen the fabric for them.  I’ve gifted them with love.

My charity quilts are NOT about me.  They are about the charity that they go to.  They are no less loved than my own quilts but they are far more important, in the big scheme of all things quilted, than my personal quilt to-do lists.

There are thousands of quilts given away through the charity I work with.  THOUSANDS.  My contribution is an extremely small part of that.

Now, as one quilter, I can make a difference.  What would happen if a dozen, a hundred, a thousand quilters joined in to make charity quilts?  YOU can make a difference.  One quilt at a time.

Tutorial Tuesday: Sew N’Slash “LOVE Letters” Table Runner

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

This is a super-simple, no-pattern-necessary tutorial on creating and piecing ABCs out of quilt fabric, the Sew N’Slashâ„¢ way.

LoveLetters

Fabric:

  • TWO (2) fat quarters
  • 1/2 yard backing fabric

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These are the two fat quarters I chose.

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All of my letters will have at least one piece of fabric in them that is 1 1/2″ (finished) wide.  I begin by envisioning my finished letters.  I will use the green fabric as two of the letters and the red fabric for the other two letters in the word LOVE.

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Cutting out the two parts to the letter L.  This is a creative project.  There is no wrong way to make letters – it’s up to your creative mind!  I don’t even have a size for my letters determined – they will be the size they end up being and then I will piece them together.

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Now it’s time to cut out the background fabric for my L.

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Sew and press them together.

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Let the sewing begin!

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The letter itself is done, now it’s time to Sew N’Slashâ„¢ the rest of the border fabric for the L.  To get started, I eyeball the length and/or width to add to the letter blocks.  Once the fabric is sewn on, I slash it to whatever size I want.

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The L is completed!

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Using the same no-pattern Sew N’Slashâ„¢ method, I begin putting the V together

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Here, I visualize putting my V together just as you would using the paper-piece method of quilting – except without the paper.  It’s all in my head!  LOL

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This is the V before I slash it.

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The first slash is cutting everything away that is to the right of my seam line.

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Then it’s time to slash the two ends so they are straight.

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I *never* throw away the scraps that are created when I Sew N’Slashâ„¢ unless the pieces are too small to use elsewhere.  You never know when you are going to need a portion of the scraps to fill in a spot.  I will complete a Sew N’Slashâ„¢ project and then throw away any unusable scraps or sort the usable ones into bins.

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My V is ready!

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Continue with the same process except now I change my fabrics around – the red will become the letters and the green will become the background.

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My O is ready!  Where it looks like I’ve spent a lot of time measuring and cutting and sewing, I’ve completed this letter in less than 10 minutes, using my Sew N’Slashâ„¢ method.  I just square everything up at the end so all of my letter blocks can be sewn together.

LOVEly

This is the completed “LOVE Letters”, sewn together and squared up.

LoveLetters

And this is the completed table runner!  Go forth and Sew N’Slashâ„¢!


Swedish Weaving Afghans

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

My mother-in-law has really embraced Swedish weaving.  She can enjoy a day or evening of watching television shows while she weaves her beautiful afghans.  She occasionally quilts, occasionally sews or repairs clothes…but always seems to have an afghan going whenever she wants to take a break.

This past year, all four of our children were blessed with her Swedish weaving afghans.  They are pretty lucky to have a mom who has made all of them a quilt or two and a grandma who has made them all personalized pillows (last year) and then Swedish woven afghans this year.

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The Quilt I Couldn’t Say No To

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

Sometime in November 2014, one of my daughter’s friend’s mother asked if I would make a t-shirt quilt for her graduating daughter (whom I’ll call T).  I was still having side effects from the failed MS therapy so was not ready to commit to doing anything that required a timeline.  I had so much to do already and no gumption to do any of it.  I did not relay this info to the mother because I had no idea when I would come out from my funk and be rearing to quilt again.  I basically ignored the question.

In January 2015, I found out our friends were coming near where we live and wanted to get together for lunch.  They also wanted to see the t-shirt quilt I was making for their daughter and son-in-law.  Except, all I’d done on that quilt was stabilize the t-shirts and cut them to-size.  And buy the fabric.  I had to work fast and furious, over the course of a week, to get that quilt top finished.  And I did it!

A week or two later, I found a paper sack on my cutting table.  I knew I didn’t put it there so started asking around the house.  Finally, my daughter said her friend’s mom sent the bag home with her, to give to me.  As I peered inside, I saw t-shirts.  This was the t-shirt quilt I ignored.  UGH

Another week or two later, I decided to take a look at what T’s mom sent.  As I pulled out the t-shirts, they weren’t what I expected.  T has been in the one-act play group at school and I expected her play t-shirts.  What I got, instead, were camp t-shirts.  Summer camp t-shirts.  Church summer camp t-shirts.  I pulled them out of the bag, not paying attention to anything on them except for the years.  I had t-shirts from the summer of 2007 through 2014.

And once again, I did nothing more with them.

Until I realized I didn’t have a whole lot of time to finish the quilt top and it was way past time when T’s mom could hire someone else to make the t-shirt quilt.

I start going through the shirts and really paying attention to them because I need to figure out what will and won’t work for the quilt and the sizes they need to be.

While reading the shirts, I came across this on a shirt:

Gal2-20

“I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now have in the flesh, I have by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  Galatians 2:20

This is what I call a “God Moment” in my life.  You see, I was confirmed at the end of my ninth-grade school year and each of the confirmands in my grade had to choose a Bible verse that they felt suited them.  Then we had to memorize it and recite it to the congregation during our confirmation church service.  THIS was my Bible verse.  I can still recite this verse from memory – and its meaning continues to speak to me, about me.

There was absolutely no doubt in my mind, after seeing this verse on one of those t-shirts, that I was meant to make this t-shirt quilt for T.

TaylorWinningham


The Man? He Can Quilt!

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

I purchased a used Tin Lizzy Eighteen longarm and frame about three years ago.  It has sat in the boxes until about three months ago because we didn’t have anyplace to put it up.  Once the quilt studio was finished, my husband’s first task was to get that longarm set up so I knew how much room was left in the studio for all of my quilting paraphernalia.

We knew that I may not be able to run the longarm because of the side effects of my MS so hubby set it all up and then searched high and lo to find instructions and ideas and everything-under-the-sun about topics such as threading the machine, what quilt thread worked best, etc. etc.

Once I helped him with a few housekeeping instructions, he’s not a quilter so I had to explain some terminology and longarm quilting advice.

Once he had that info, he went to town!  He finished quilting a baby quilt and was SO VERY PROUD of his accomplishment – as well he should be!  With only a few errors, he got on a roll and never backed down – even when I shared my seam ripper with him for some boo-boos 🙂

Without further ado – here he is with the 40″ square baby quilt he quilted:

Lee's Bday 002

And when one of our daughters pointed out that ‘read men don’t quilt’ I had to follow that up with the names of male quilters that I virtually knew of and she backed down.  ;-)  ©2015 TK Harrison ~ All Rights Reserved.