Big T-Rex

     A while back, I was trying to use up the abundance of scraps that were taking over my sewing space.  I spent some time looking for ideas and I saw several quilts that were made using strips of scraps.  This was my version:  

    Straight lines were quilted over the patchwork and then straight lines around the border. It was bound with a variety of strips that matched the patchwork. There is no batting in this quilt. It has sage green fleece for the backing and it turned out to be wonderfully cozy.

    I've been on a kick lately of building a quilt around a t-shirt.  I mean, have you seen some of the t-shirts out there?  They’re fabulous!  They decorate T’s with colorful printing, puffy paint, embroidery, applique, they tack on bows and buttons and all kinds of embellishments.  Whenever I find one that really catches my interest, I take it home and plan a quilt around it. 

    This T-Rex caught my eye:

  

    It was a kid’s shirt. I bought it, took it home and stuffed it in my project pile.  I spent a few months thinking on what to do with it.  And sadly, that's where many of my project ideas end.  They are stuffed away and forgotten.  But, after I made the first quilt you see here, I realized that the colors were perfect for the T-Rex.  So I thought to myself, "Why don’t I just do this (the same pattern) around that (the t-shirt)?"   And another quilt was born:

    I love the leaf "fossils" at the top and bottom of the T-Rex (upper right and lower left). For the back, I was trying to use up some larger cuts of fabric. I'm not fond of how it turned out. The front of the quilt is very busy and after it was finished, I felt like the back should have been less busy. If I could do it over, I would make a simpler backing.

T-Rex went to live with a toddler who has cystic fibrosis.  The little boy was absolutely smitten with dinosaurs. He was only three, yet he could recite and pronounce the long names of at least half a dozen dinosaurs. He had dino decor in his room and the colors were a perfect match to the quilt.  It’s like it was meant to be.  

    After the T-Rex quilt, I decided to make a series of quilts using t-shirt blocks.  So far, I have six tops waiting to be finished. I’ll post about them as they are completed. In the meantime, here is a preview of the stack:

     That's it for now.  I hope you have a great day!