First of all, Happy April! Finally it is here!  After missing out on most of last summer due to being preggs and having a newborn I am doubley stoked for this coming spring and summer.

Project #1 (Band T-Shirt Quilt)
Since I was a teenager I have had this compulsion of buying band t-shrits, ALWAYS. I can’t leave a show without picking one up at the merch table on my way out. I am a junkie. Over the last 10 years I’ve collected around 50 shirts and I never even wear them. When I was younger I used to wear them all the time but as I’ve aged my fashions have become more refined (yeah right) and I find myself wearing band t-shirts less and less, although I do still have a few that I wear on a weekly basis. During our move last fall I began to realize how many of these t-shirts I actually had. Not only do I do not wear them often, but I also can not throw them away. Too many of them are more than just a piece of cotton and some ink but a memory of good times.
So I decided that I need to come up with a solution for this problem, and the best thing I have thought of so far is to make them into a quilt. These are questions that I ask myself; Am I crazy? Can I do this? Will I ever finish this? Will it be worth it? and most importantly, What if I want to wear that shirt again? I own the original Modest Mouse shirt circa 1998, I have over 6 Hold Steady t-shirts including the original “THE HOLD STEADY ALMOST KILLED ME” and not to mention about 10 TPC shirts, some of which are one of a kind. Oh decisions, decisions. I need to commit! So a quilt it is.

I’ve been briefly looking on the internets for references on this massive undertaking, and unfortunately I haven’t come up with much. There are others out there who have also faced this dilemma and have created successful quilting projects. I am hoping to join there ranks.

If anyone else might be interested in doing this, here is a link to a website that seems to have some good foresight into t-shirt quilt making.  I am lucky though, my Grandma is a master quilter, so hopefully I can lean on her for advice.

Project #2 (Baby jars for organization)
Have you ever seen baby jars used for organization? My Grandpa used to use baby jars to separate all his screws, nuts and blots, etc. He had the baby jar caps screwed on to a piece of plywood and hung up on the back of his work bench, then he would fill up the jars with hardware and thread them onto the caps. I’ve been saving my baby jars so I can adapt this idea to crafting supplies, like buttons, edgings, yarns, etc. Below I’ve posted a photo from flickr so you can get the idea.

photo by californiaAmy

Project #3 (Christmas stockings for three)
I was so sad this last Christmas when we didn’t have enough extra cash to buy Christmas stockings. It was our first Christmas with Finn and I really wanted it to be special for him. Christmas is one of my favorite times of year and definitely my favorite holiday, besides my Birthday, and I wanted to share this with Finn. I decided I would make it even more awesome for him and make our whole family a set of vintage style Christmas stockings. I purchased 2 patterns yesterday on the interweb and am going to the fabric store later this week to pick up felt, sheers, and thread.

This pattern comes with some cool retro templates for the letters.

Project #4 (Bruce Springsteen in pillow form (If I can do this, I can do anything.)
And last but not least, being inspired by the Bob Saget portrait, I have decided to create crocheted pillows of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I can only imagine, that if successful, that this will be one of the most awesome things ever. This is the picture from the cover of Darkness on the Edge of Town, hopefully I can transcribe it into a pattern. I am going to attempt the Afghan/Tunisian Stitch and then will try and cross stitch the image over that, at least that’s what I am thinking I will do.

Wish me luck.