Marucs is 3!

   Happy Birthday Marcus

Well it is official today- I have a three year old. Time always goes so fast but I can't believe that it has already been 3 years.

Marcus is an amazing person - he is loving and gentle (most of the time) and full of energy and life. He is the perfect mix of Luke and me - and so far it looks like he got the best of both of us.I found some questions online and I plan on asking them every year to keep track of my little boy.

Happy National Marcus Day to my sweet little boy!

Birthday questions : answered by Marcus at age 3
 I decided to to do this a little different.  I did interview Marcus but before I did this I actually added my comments in Blue- Marcus is in red.  My plan is to do this every year going forward!  You will notice that he did not answer all of the questions-  turns out he is a tough interview!  I may fill some of them in later

1. What is your favorite color?

• Yellow

2. What is your favorite toy?

•  Trains, Drums and drum sticks, and his bike 
• Sandbox

3. What is your favorite fruit?

• To many to list-  Marcus loves fruit
• Melon

4. What is your favorite TV show?

• Marcus doesn't watch a lot of TV- my guess is that his favorite will be the documentaries he watches with Daddy- either about the birds or the snow monkey
•  Water fountains (which we watch on YouTube)

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  

• Peanut Butter and Jelly, coleslaw
•  Peanut butter and Jelly and salad

 6. What is your favorite outfit?

•  Penguin Jammies and Mine Shirt (from the Soudan Mine State Park)
•  No comment

 7. What is your favorite game?

• Not sure- we don't play a lot of games
•  No comment

 8. What is your favorite snack?

• Pink Raisins (Yogurt covered raisins)
•  Chocolate

 9. What is your favorite animal?

•  Sandy Dog

10. What is your favorite song?

• Anything from Frozen
•  Playing the drums

 11. What is your favorite book?

• He doesn't have one but he LOVES books
• No comment

12. Who is your best friend?

•  I think this one is tough-  I am going to guess Sophie (his cousin)
•  Sophie

13. What is your favorite cereal?

• I think the only kind he has eaten is Panda Puffs
• No comment

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?

• Too many choices- bike, hike, play in the sandbox
• 
  

15. What is your favorite drink?  

• Milk
• Milk

16. What is your favorite holiday?

• No clue- I am going to guess Christmas because he still talks about Christmas trees all of the time.
•  No comment

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?

•  Dolphin and Penguin and lots of blankies
• Dolphin, Penguin, Luna, Manatee & Baby Manatee, Mouse, Mouse, Baby Mouse, blankie, blankie, blankie, blankie, blankie, etc.

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

• Toad-in-the Holes with Extra Holes- Also likes bagels with cream cheese.
•  No comment

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

• Pizza or Mac&Cheese
•  Noodles (he likes the Pesto Cavatappi from Noodles and Company)

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

•  Farmer or Drummer
• He wants to play volleyball with Mommy and Daddy

21. What does your Mommy do best?

• Loves Marcus
•  No comment

22. What does your Daddy do best?

• Loves Marcus
•  No comment

23. Who loves Marcus?

• Everyone (well all of his family and friends)
•  Mommy and Daddy- Marcus's Mommy is Vonnie

24.  What does Marcus love most to talk about?

• Waterfalls, Hot Air Balloons, everything outside (especially birds), tractors, water (and anything to do with it), water fountains, G&G Florida house, Mommy & Daddy, Target, Sandy dog
•  No comment

We had Marcus's actual Birthday party on Sunday (last week-end) and it was such a blast.  He has a mix of family and friends and he was so happy.  It was a great day.  Thank you for everyone who joined for the big day. So a quick thank you to the G&G Z (Sophie, Carson, Beckett, & Bryce), G&G F, GG W, Jess, Noah & Liam, the Abels, the Grundhofers, and the Kahles- It was so much fun and Marcus is still talking about it 3 days later (which is an eternity in his world).

How to make a T-shirt Quilt

My niece Micci is graduating from High School this year and asked me about how to make a t-shirt quilt.  I had done the blog about my dad's quilt and I have sense than realized that the directions were not all that intuitive.  Since I needed to write up directions for Mic anyway I decided to post them to the site.  Since I am not actually making a quilt right now I don't have actual pictures but when I make a new one I will add some pics to this blog.  I might even add a pic of her quilt when it is done!

Shopping List

1. Fusible interface- Just ask the staff at either JoAnn Fabrics or Hancock Fabrics what is the right one to get for this project. Get two yards- this will give you extra but that is fine.

2. Flannel quilting Material- we are going to make 16 squares- so you feel free to pick somewhere between 1-4 materials so we can design them. Just make sure you coordinate them so they match. Need a total of 2 yards of material-

***the assumption on this quilt is a 16 square rag quilt with 12”x 12” squares- if you increase the number of squares or the size you will need to purchase additional materials***

- 1 material- 2 yards

- 2 materials- 1 yard each

- 3 materials- don’t do this it would look dumb

- 4 materials- 24 inches of each material 2/3 yards- we need this because the normal dimension of bolt of flannel is 40” long and we need each piece to be 12” x 12”

-please don't do more than 4 or it will be pain to get them right

Just one thought-

***Make sure that you wash all of the materials before you start cutting the squares. This is just a good first step for anytime you are quilting but even more important when you are doing a rag quilt.***

3. Quilt batting- I used ¼” batting for the quilts I have done.

Supply List:   Here are the items you will need to make the quilt:

Sewing Machine                                  

Cutting Scissors

Mat for cutting

Rotary Blade

Snipping scissors

Pins

Thread

Thick Needle

Iron

Directions:

1. I am basing the size assumption that we are able to get 12 x 12 pieces out of the shirts- if you get bigger pieces you will need to adjust the size- and the measurements.  You can pretty much do any size you want that they t-shirts will accommodate.  I did 13.5” x 13.5” for the last quilt I made.   The actual square for this quilt will end up about 11.5x11.5 when we are done because of the seam allowance of ¼”.

The next step is cut your squares- you will need to cut 12 x 12 pieces of all of the above.

- 16 T-shirt squares

-16 fusible interface squares- ****Ideally you want the interface to perfectly match each of the t-shirt squares. I actually ironed it on before I cut each piece of the interface. Then I cut it so it was perfect.****  But you can do this however you want.

-16 pieces of flannel for the back

-16 pieces of batting for the inside of the quilt.  These should be approx. 1" smaller than your quilt squares- so in this case 11"x 11".

1.       ***One hint I did that worked pretty well for me is that I actually cute template for the 12" x 12" out of a cardboard box and used that to for cutting the t-shirts. They can be difficult to work with because they are so stretchy.***                                                   

    

2. Once you have the T-shirts and fusible interface squares completed it is time to Iron. The t-shirt needs to be ironed to the fusible interface- warning can get sticky. I also ironed it one more time after cutting it because I wanted to a make sure I had really crisp corners on the squares.

3.  Once your pieces are all put together you need to design the actual quilt.  Figure out where you want each square and take a picture of it so you remember later and plan out what goes on the back of each piece.  You can see on the right that I laid the quilt out on the floor and figured out a color scheme before I put the squared together. 

4.  Now that you have all of the components it is time to put the squares together.  So for each square you will need 1 t-shirt piece, 1 piece of batting, and a back.  Pin these together.  I normally use about 3 pins per square.

5.  Now that you have pinned your square together it is time to start sewing.  For each square sew an X in the middle of it. I normally liked to start my X about 1/4 from the edge and end in the same place on the other side.  This gives you clearer seems for when you do the rag quilt cutting.  If you have chosen to use multiple fabrics for the back make sure that you select the right fabric to match the location of the quilt square.  ***One thing to mention is that I found that normal sewing machine needle was not strong enough and I had to get a needle that worked denim to successfully get through the materials***

6. Repeat this process until all of the squares are completed.
7. Now it is time to do your first row.  Start by pinning together two pieces back to back.  You will want to use either a 1/4" or 1/3" seem allowance depending on how you want this to look.  Once they are pinned sew a seem connecting the two pieces.  When you finish the back will be flat and the front will have a raised seam that you will use when making the rag effect.

 You can see the raised seem in the baby blanket on the left here.
***It is super easy to sew one of these seems wrong.  Make sure you double check before you start sewing every square.***
 
It will look like this when you are completed.

8. Once you have all of your rows down it is time to connect them together using the same process.

8.  The last thing you need to sew is your outside edges of the quilt.  Just keep your 1/4" seem allowance and sew straight down the quilt edge.
9.  Most of the hard work is done now and there are only a few steps left.  Now it is time snip your edges.  It it best to use an actual snipping tool like the pictures by Fiskers.  It is a lot tougher to try and use an traditional scissors.   Figure out what you want it to look like and snip away-  I usually make mine about 1/4".  ***Make sure you don't snip your seems of you will have to fix them later (been there, done that)***  This will take a while because there are a lot of seems- and don't worry that it doesn't look all fraying and awesome yet it will.
10.  The last thing you need to do is wash the blanket- ***Do not wash or dry anything else with it***.  The fist time you watch it be prepared for the amount of fraying and link that will occur.  

Yeah you are done!  If you do this following my directions let me know how it worked and what I can improve on.