Shirts Deconstructed

I finally got around to the shirts that I picked up at Goodwill on Saturday. I have it down to a science now. A little tub or trash can sits at my feet along with a cup for the buttons. The seams and scraps get dropped down while I harvest the pieces of fabric.
I'm not sure yet what I'll do with these. I am thinking of saving it to use with the Go Cutter when it comes in, hopefully soon. I got a really good price on ebay along with free shipping on the 4th of July. I even found a tumbler die, and it all added up to almost exactly the same amount as the change from the basket.
I took the kids to see Marmaduke this afternoon and there was a great quilt hanging on the wall at the beginning of the movie. I kept looking for it every time someone walked past. It had great fall colors with two different backgrounds, one a darker beige that looked almost tea died. I so wished I could hit pause and check it out. It was a modified nine patch alternating with a sashed square for an Irish chain type effect. I get such a kick out of seeing quilts in movies. We all ate so much popcorn that nobody was very hungry for dinner.

Blocks Ready to Go

I just finished off the blocks for my Goodwill shirt quilt. I used the highly scientific method of cutting the shirts into strips and then sewing them together until I was out of shirts. I was alternating sixteen patches with four patches until I ran out and then I finished off with the four patches around the edges. I may have enough left in the scrap basket for some sort of border, but it seems to be about the right size now. The blocks are 8.5 unfinished and it looks like they are set 7 by 10. Now that I think about it, a border would make it nicely twin sized. I'll have to see what I can find. It is called square root because it is made of 16 and 4 patches. It was going to be perfect squares, but using the word "perfect" seems to be a little ostentatious. I'll move the blocks around a bit to even out the color placement and then get it up and pinned so I can sew the blocks together in the morning. I'm waiting for Kurt to get home from the airport now, so I'll putter around until he gets here. I'm thinking of quilting it with pink thread in a free motion water pattern. Again, the highly scientific reason is that I'd like to try it out and I have a cone of pink thread.
I took Sydney and Ryan both to get haircuts today and we played board games in the afternoon. They both wanted to sleep in the toy room and Lizzie has been snoring in a pile of fabric I pulled out to iron and put down in my chair. I'm working my way slowly through the stuff from the study. It is nice to have summer to be able to get things like that done.

Another Idea

Maybe something more like this? I started playing with the blocks and thought about alternating 16 patches with bigger four patches. Which is better? Time to go get Ryan from camp. This one is chess and video game production. I hope he's having fun.

Design Wall Monday June 21

I had my sashed log cabins up this morning, but decided to take them down and work on the new shirt quilt. I ended up with 4.5 inch squares alternating with 2.5 inch four patches. So far I am throwing them up in diagonal rows, but now that I look at the picture, the dark teal stands out a lot so I will either spread them out or throw in something else for balance.
Anna and Ryan are both at camp and Sydney is on a play date, so it is VERY quiet around here. Kurt is going on a short business trip tonight, so the quiet will continue for a while. Very strange indeed. I'd better use the opportunity to get some sewing done while I have the opportunity.