Moving house presented the opportunity to go through Mr MiH's wardrobe. He is really bad at throwing things away, really. I am on the other hand able to get rid of things very easily (except handbags). You can see the tension in the house, Me: 'why are you keeping this, it is broken?' Him:'I will fix it... one day'. Hmmm. Anyway, I must have rubbed off on him, because he did get rid of some of his shirts (frayed at the collar and cuffs - not a good look). And here came the idea of turning them into a quilt! This is of course a win-win for Mr MiH - he gets rid of shirts, but can still enjoy them (yes, I got more as a result) and I get free fabric.
I have been longing to get on with log cabin blocks for a long time since I saw Kevin Costner's sofa in a mag. Upcycled shirts were perfect as I got a lot of different sizes of fabric pieces, but as I only needed strips of it, it did not matter. I did buy some extra shirts and charity shirts (the XXL versions for a pound) and received some donations from family members as well.
I am really lucky - his shirts are mainly blue or white - with a couple of pink ones (which he was very happy to get rid of). So it was all easy to follow the bi-colour inspiration. I made a rough sketch of what I wanted to achieve and the number of blocks I would need (a bit daunting - may become smaller).
This quilt is supposed to be a picnic blanket... which may prove useful now that summer is finally upon us in London. I used some Michael Miller fabric with butterflies for the centre of the block which fitted the purpose.
This is very much work-in-progress. It took for ever to prepare the shirts, cut out the pieces of fabric, wash, iron them and cut each into strips. And then pregnancy sickness stopped any progress. I was really disappointed that only 4 blocks were done (I had 8 in mind). I am hoping to make some more over the weekend, I may actually be using this quilt some time this year!
Today I am linking up to W.I.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
