Fun idea for Father's Day - Storyworth

I'm really excited about the Father's Day gift I'm giving my Dad this year.  As a child, I would always ask him to "tell me a story I've never heard".  He had so many interesting stories from his childhood to share!

Storyworth is a service that sends weekly writing prompts to the storyteller.  They write a response to each one, and at the end of a year they are compiled and made into a keepsake book.  You can also get additional books if there are several people interested in keeping the stories.  The storyteller can choose to share their stories online with anyone they add to their list.  I can't wait for my Dad to get started!

His wedding anniversary is the same week as Father's Day, so the first writing prompt is about his wedding day.  Some others coming up are about family vacations, weathering hurricanes, and his grandparents.

Sports Jersery T-Shirt Quilt

I started this quilt over two years ago, and FINALLY finished it for the recipient.  Now I get to share it with you!

I made this quilt for a young man who played sports throughout high school and college.  He wanted to remember those years, but didn't feel the need to keep wearing shirts and jerseys from high school and college.  He delivered more than 30 shirts to me, and I got to work!

I started by washing and drying all the shirts.  All of my quilts are designed to be machine washable, so I wanted to make sure anything that might happen to the shirts would happen before I started the quilt.  One of the jerseys was ruined in the wash - the lettering fell off!  The rest came out just fine.

Next, I cut the shirts into 12.5" squares (to make 12" finished squares).  Two of the shirts has a somewhat larger design, so I made a double-sized block that combined a larger design with a smaller one.  I layered the thinnest jerseys over t-shirt knit recycled from the plain backs of other shirts.

I laid everything out in my living room, and arranged and rearranged until I liked how the colors were distributed.  Then I got to sewing!  Large 12" blocks generally come together easily, but because all the fabrics were different - some silky, some thick, and all with different amount of stretch - I did a LOT of pinning to make sure they would come together nicely.  I don't know many quilters who work with high-performance athletic materials!

I chose royal purple minkie for the backing, and a thick batting.  This quilt is designed for ultimate comfort!

To quilt the layers together, I sewed a 2" plus sign in each of the corners.  This allows the quilt to be able to stretch, but still keeps everything from moving around during washing.

I bound the quilt with black jersey knit.  This step took me over a year...it might be time to learn machine binding.  Toddlers don't help the process either :)

I really love how this quilt came out.  It's fun, super comfortable and snuggly, and a great way to hold onto fond memories (without wearing your old jerseys in public).

Bonnie Projects

Display a ticket stub collection

Update!!!  I found an easier way to do this!

Does your husband have huge collections of stuff that are generally unacceptable as art?  Has he been collecting these objects for over ten years?  Does he love going to events, such as sports games, concerts, and movies, and even have season passes to his alma mater?

What can you do with such collections, you ask?  Look no further!!!  I am here to show you how to make a collection of ticket stubs into tasteful decor for your home.

{All in jest - I love you Tommy!  But seriously, there's a widespread lack of ideas for displaying collections}

I have yet to figure out his shot glass collection, but I have figured out the ticket stubs!

I started with a 20" square IKEA Ribba frame in black.  Their black and white frames in this size are kind of like shallow shadow boxes, and leave about an inch between the glass and the mat.

Tommy helped me cut a slit in one side of the frame - we drilled holes, then connected them using the jigsaw.  I wanted to do a plunge cut with the circular saw, but it seemed really unsafe, so we passed.  Be VERY CAREFUL with this part, and get a partner to help you hold everything!

Cutting the slit messed up the frame a bit, so I touched it up with black acrylic craft paint.  The finish isn't the same, but it's going on the top of a frame, and we're short, so it's not like we'll see it anyways.

There's a square insert for the IKEA Ribba frame, and it was blocking my fresh-cut slit.  I pulled off one of the sides, and put the U-shaped piece back in.  They're stapled together, it was really easy to just pull it apart.

Lucky for me, I had a large 2006 Final Four flag that I taped to the mat to cover the hole.  In other instances, I bet a fresh piece of mat board or a poster or something would also work.

If you just throw all the tickets through the hole, they tend to just land on their sides and bunch up at the bottom - not so pretty.  Instead, I taped a bunch to the mat to create a pretty background.  Don't do this for all of them - save a few.

Then I put the frame back together like normal.

Once I had it hung, I inserted the remainder of my tickets.  Again, they'll bunch up at the bottom, so instead of putting them in one at a time, I would tape two or three together at odd angles, then insert that whole bunch.  That way they look a lot more interesting at the bottom of the frame.

So that's it!  The whole project took about an hour of labor, but spread out over time since I had to wait for paint to dry.  I spent $20 on the frame, and I already had the paint.  All those events on the other hand....let's just call them priceless.

I love that now we can see all these ticket stubs and remember all the fun events we've been to!  I also love that they're all corralled in a 20" x 20" space - they're fun, but not too juvenile.

Bonnie Projects