Wanderlust Times 2: Down Time

Yes I love to sew. But obviously I don't get a lot of time to pursue this hobby any more. I do however do a little each time I am home. So I thought I would share a few recent and current projects.

This is a quilt I am making for my husband. When he was in the Navy he bought t-shirts at every port his ship hit around the world. You could say they were his souvenirs. Only problem is that he was 2 sizes smaller when he bought them. I know there are other wives out there with similar issues. My husband was a skinny teenager, but has grown up to be a well muscled large man. So the question was always what to do about these t-shirts. I couldn't throw them away, since they represented a lot of memories for him. Yet I didn't want to see him wearing them either. For a while the solution was just to pack them in a vacuum bag. Then I saw a sitcom on TV one night that was the perfect solution. She took all of her husband's "favorite" shirts and had them made into a memory quilt. What a great idea! I have always wanted to make a quilt so this was a double winner in my book.

I ran the idea past Randy and he wasn't to sure, but was willing to have me show him the idea. So I dug out all of t-shirts and folded them to show the graphics I wanted to use. Then I laid them out on the floor, along with some brown ultra-suede to use for the border. Randy is a very literal guy and has to actually see stuff like this to be able to "imagine" how it will look. He loved it and even wanted to help in the designing process. So we have been working on this for a little over a year now a little bit each time we have been home.

So far we have chosen all the panels, cut them out and ironed on interfacing to give a little more body to the flimsy cotton t-shirt material. Now I need to either buy an embroidery machine or have someone embroider the front border I want to do. We decided we are going to put things like the name of his ship, years in the navy, ports of call and medals he received along the outside edge of the quilt. It should look really neat when all done. Now all we have to do is get it finished.

Yes, you are seeing yellow rubber duckies. I get cold easily and so I love footy pajamas. But they are hard to find in adult sizes. So I went to the fabric store looking for some nice warm material. Randy was with me, so when I decided on blanket fleece and was sorting thru the stacks looking for just the right design, he chose this. He pulled the roll out and said with a big smile, you should get this one. At first I thought he was joking, but then after discussing it for a minute I agreed that they would be really cute.

I ripped apart one of my old pairs and used it as a pattern. I took care to lay out the pattern so all the little duckies swim across the front and around in a right to left pattern. I found nonskid on ebay for the feet and an extra long zipper at Wal-Mart. They couldn't have turned out better. These are the warmest, most comfortable things I have every owned!

We even went back last fall and bought more fleece. Enough for a another pair for me and even one for Randy. Not rubber duckies this time though. I got Randy a dark red fleece with black moose walking across it and mine is a brightly colored geometric jester like pattern.

NO, I am not going to model them for you...