Valerean

To finish my memory lap quilt made out of my old t-shirts last month I decided to use some thrifted binding I had on hand versus buying new. It's off white, and pure white would have been a better match. Still, the backing was a thrifted sheet, the batting was thrifted and the embroidery threads were all vintage, so it just felt like the right choice. Once I sewed it on I thought it worked fine, and the quilt was complete. The quilt turned out much prettier than I expected it would; the embroidery was a big help. It also feels like me to me. The back. I learned something from every stage of this project, and while I'm not in a rush to make another quilt out of t-shirts, it was definitely interesting. Detail of the backing, darkened to show the stitching. I surprised myself by making this quilt; I didn't think I had it in me. Now I think I have one more large quilt left in me for this year (which will be the kit.)

This is going to be a weird post, I'll tell you that up front. After watching the romantic dramedy Crash Landing on You some years ago and seeing Kim Soo Hyun (one of the highest paid actors in Asia, aka the King of Endorsements) make a cameo with long hair and wearing a green track suit, in which he acted like someone mentally challenged, I never got that scene out of my head. Although I was pretty sure it was a cultural reference that flew right over my head, the casting was just bizarre. In the west it would be like having Chris Evans play the autistic character role in Rain Man . Anyway, fast forward to this summer, when Viki.com added a film called Secretly Greatly that featured Kim Soo Hyn with long hair, wearing a green track suit and looking like a mentally challenged person again. I had to know what he was playing, so I watched the movie. And, well, I might be more confused than I was before I did. The beginning of the movie starts like an over-the-top Asian...

This is what the recycled t-shirt throw looked like with a quarter of the embroidery done. It was slow going until I finally got the hang of how to embroider old cotton knit: Carefully. Slowly. Don't try to unpick stitches, either! Ha. I also trimmed and evened out the sides where I needed a little more fabric (my guy donated one of his old t-shirts to the cause.)

I should have enough time this year to make one more large quilt, so back in July I went through my kits box and took out the two biggest that I have on hand. Both are really pretty. The Arcadia kit is for a big quilt (maybe full or queen); the Wave kit is for a lap quilt. Since I'm more likely to finish a lap quilt I decided to go with the Wave kit.

When I started embroidering my recycled t-shirt throw I considered stopping as I was making holes in the cotton knit by trying to bury knots and pull the thread through in certain places. Fortunately I got the hang of it fairly quickly. Burying knots is fine from the back side, and I just need to be gentler when I tug on the thread. I'm going with random feather stitching in four different colors of perle thread, and just stitching enough to keep the batting from shifting and bunching in the future.

This is me putting the last quilting stitch in the throw made of my old t-shirts back in July. Because I used big stitches it didn't take long to quilt each block; altogether I stitched on it every night for ten days. I learned many things from this project as well (lesson number one: never make anything to be quilted out of old cotton knit.) There is a little embroidery I have planned for it, and a couple of fixes I need to do to the sides. Although the sheet I thrifted as the backing had a label that said it was 100% cotton, it has a very weird feel to it, almost like a poly-cotton blend (maybe the label is a lie.) It doesn't self-heal well, so every puncture my quilting needle and safety pins made still show. Anyway. Next up will be the embroidery/fix work, and then I'll be able to bind and finish it.

I've only ever owned one pair of sneakers at a time, but thanks to thrifting I now have four pair: New Balance, two pair of Skechers and Reebok. I'm also walking so much these days I'm wearing out the New Balance (also the first pair of shoes I ever thrifted.) I decided to thrift one more for a minimum bid, and won these Fila walking sneakers with tags in the original box. The box has a pricetag of $59.99 from Kohl's; on the other side it was marked down to $29.99. Inside the box I found the original owner's receipt from 2018. The shoes came with tags and the store stuffing still in the toes so they were never worn. They're in remarkably pristine condition, too, and are made partly of mesh to allow air to circulate while you walk. I paid $9.99 for them. The new sneakers are very similar to my favorite Skechers, which I wear when we go out walking, so I expect I'll get a lot of use out of them.