Sewing with Girl Scouts--May Meeting

My heart swelled, yet broke slightly, at our monthly Girl Scout meeting tonight.  The girls have been discussing Bronze and Silver Award projects, and they decided to make blankets and pillows for local hospitals.  I could not come up with something "fun" for the meeting, so I decided we would start with the project.  I bought 4 pieces of light fleece to make tie blankets, and Mom found some pieces of material to sew and make pillow cases.  We realized we didn't have the stuffing, but we can do that later.  I showed the girls how to cut and tie the blankets while she showed them how to sew a simple stitch/hem with the sewing machine.  The first girl, who took to it quickly and easily, happens to have the same name as my niece.  All I could think was . . . this should be my niece and her grandmother sewing together.  Maybe some day it will be, but at the rate we are going, it won't.  My heart broke slightly at this sight and thought.  However, I was excited that both of us could share these skills with three (only three came tonight) beautiful young ladies.

Pinterest Project Fun--T-Shirt Quilt/Wall Hanging

Yesterday, I was feeling stressed, and I knew I needed to find something to do to take my mind off the issue and to fill my time with creativity.  What did I do? I dug out all my SMU t-shirts I had stored in the bottom of my closet, and I decided to make a t-shirt quilt.  I had pinned this site: http://faithinfear.blogspot.com/2013/01/t-shirt-quilt-introduction.html.  I read and reread what she said and then got busy.

I realized I didn't have enough shirts for a twin size, so I decided to go with a wall hanging or throw. (Although, after talking to my BFF, I could have used the backs of the shirts as solid panels/squares to make it bigger, but then I would have had to use interfacing too.)  I did all the pinning, and Mom did the sewing.  I would have done it, but this gave her something to do too.

It isn't perfect, but it will be something to cherish b/c I was assisted with great love and affection by my seamstress (aka Mom), and we used Granny's sewing machine. (We had used Mom's in the beginning, but the backside of the seam looked terrible, so we changed machines.  After talking with our amazing neighbor, we learned the tension wasn't right, so we changed it on Granny's machine and kept going.)  The whole thing really only took about 8-9 hours.

I think my little model thinks it is for her. She had to be on it or by it every step of the way. As I pinned the binding, she came along behind me taking out the pins. Yes, she took out the pins one at a time with her teeth.  :-)

My plan is to use it as wall decor in my office this year to go with our college theme.