Dodgeball, Dodgeball, Dodgeball!

Some of you might know about my stint as president of the Portland Co-ed Adult Dodgeball league. That first season I was president, our fearless founder did what she did best: complete the t-shirt order at the last minute and at great expense. What this meant in reality was that although everyone (that I know of) got their t-shirt, I also had a box of unused ones in my basement. I had them for a looong time. I gave a few of them away, but still had a bunch left over. When it came time to move, I refused to move all those t-shirts, so I gave more of them away. Then my roommate had a brilliant idea: turn them into a quilt. (I'm a bit ashamed I didn't think of it first.)

So, I *did* move all those t-shirts, but by then I was down to (only) 21 shirts. Yeah, only. 21 is a lot of shirts. They make for a nice 4x5 quilt, with one left over for a pillow. The pillow isn't done yet, but the quilt has just been finished. I didn't get my grading done over spring break, but I did make a whole quilt. Woo-hoo!

A few things to note: this is the first thing I've made with my new sewing machine. It is a pretty rocking machine. I managed to put the thing together with the absolute minimum of puckering, which is amazing considering I was working with jersey with screen printing on it. I credit the built-in walking foot on my machine. That's right, baby, built-in. It is so rad. I also used my super-cool 1/4" presser foot and my special quilting-foot. I don't know what's so special about the quilting foot, but that's what it's called, so I used it.





Please don't look to closely at the quilting, though. It's the first machine quilting I've ever done, and with the new machine and left-over thread (I was trying to use up a bunch of odds-n-ends I've got lying around), well -- the lines aren't perfect (I meant them to be wavy, but not so jaggedly so) and the tension isn't alway the best. I think it works, though. I do love it. And although I have it posed on the bed, it's really a sunggle-up-on-the-couch quilt. Just like snuggling up in your favorite t-shirt (that really needs to be washed a few more times so it gets nice and soft).