make it monday: tshirt quilt

today's project:

THE T-SHIRT QUILT

i knew i wanted to make one of these when i first saw the idea awhile ago, and was kicking myself for not saving more of our old tshirts! but thankfully i found enough between both our shirts to make a decent sized quilt top :)

materials needed:

tshirts. :)

- i used approximately 33 tshirts, and i only used whichever side had a design. (some had designs on the front and back so i used both sides). i did 7 rows of 5 across, using 35 squares total.

notes:: another friend who also made a tshirt quilt cut the front and back of the tshirts even if they didn't have designs, and had some blank jersey squares mixed with the patterns, which is also a great idea! unfortunately i asked her about it too late, as my scraps were already in the dumpster :P
-if you don't have quite enough tshirts, you could always go buy a few soft ones from good will, too!

rotary cutter and mat. (you don't *have* to use these, but they sure make cutting much easier)


guide for cutting. (i used the ruler pictured above as well as a piece of 12x12 paper as a guide to follow to cut each square.)

thread.
since the shirts are all different colors, i really don't think it matters what color thread you use. i used navy blue since at least half of my shirts were blue of some sort :)

sewing machine. (you could sew them by hand if you don't have a machine, it would just take a lot longer!)

STEP ONE:

gather all your shirts, and make sure they are clean and ready for cutting.

here's my pile of tshirts (that my dog of course is laying on top of :P)


side note:: one of the fun parts of this project was picking out the tshirts to use, and remembering where each came from. the one "i love my husband" was a wedding present, we have a bunch from our times at emmaus, and from some of the teaching jobs i had, ben got the "hard rock" one from one of his trips to thailand in the navy. such fun memories! :)


STEP TWO:

cut all the sleeves off your tshirts, and separate the fronts from the backs so you have flat pieces to cut.

STEP THREE:

using your tools, cut out 35 squares from your tshirts. you can make them any size you want. i did 12x12 (the size of a piece of scrapbook paper) and that seemed to cover most of the designs on each shirt. whatever size you choose, just make sure to cut them all as close to the same size as you can to make it easier to piece them together! i laid the piece of paper over the shirt and tried to center it as best i could, then cut away!

STEP FOUR:

once you have all your squares cut (or as you go along), lay out your squares in the order you want them to go

tip: stack each row in order so you remember! :)



STEP FIVE:

sew each square together in the order you have them laid out.

tip: make sure to use the same seam allowance for each of your squares and rows to make sure they all match up! i like to use the end of my presser foot as a guide to go by.

i sewed my 7 rows of 5 first, then i sewed those longer rows together one on top of the next (does that make sense?) :) match up each corner. i don't think the jersey needs ironing at the seams, but that would be up to you!







note:: i did notice that the jersey fabric is a bit more slippery than some of the other cotton fabrics i've made quilts out of. that can be a bit challenging to make your lines completely straight, but the plus side is that with the stretchiness, it makes it easier to match all the corners well! :) just do your best. handmade quilts aren't supposed to be 100% perfect anyways (in my opinion!)

STEP SIX:

once you have your top all finished, measure the finished size so you know how much backing fabric you need. mine is around 80 x 58



this is the step i'm on now. to finish your quilt, pick out your backing fabric, and decide if you want batting in the middle. i think i might skip batting on this one to make a thinner blanket, but if you want it to be extra warm, batting would definitely give it a thicker layer!

STEP SEVEN:

put it all together and then you have your quilt! :) i haven't finished mine yet as i am still searching for just the right fabric for the back (i'm thinking about minky). i'll be sure to check in when it's done and let you know any tips i have for putting the back on! :)

also, i'm certainly not the world's best sewer, but if you have any ?s, please let me know!
hope you have fun gathering old tshirts and making a fun comfy quilt!

thankful thursday: may 9th

sunday is mother's day, so it seems fitting that today i can talk about the things i'm thankful for about my mom!

- she is always there for her kids. ALWAYS. she'll drop anything anytime one of us needs her.

- not only her kids, but she's always willing to help out others who need things like meals, babysitting, etc. she's got a servant's heart to the core!

- she is very supportive and encouraging

- she is very good listener. so good in fact sometimes you have to be "careful" of what you tell her you like, or you may end up receiving that exact thing next time you have a birthday or just because! ;)

- she's our biggest fan!

- she's adopted my husband as another one of her kids :)

- she's a great example of a sweet, giving, gracious, patient, gentle & meek spirit

- she's a great example of a wonderful wife and mother and i hope to be a mom like her one day! :)

happy mother's day to the best mom a girl could ever ask for!



love you Mama!

wednesday words: waiting

one word's been sticking out at me lately:

WAITING

everyone goes through seasons of waiting.
here are some of ours:

i waited for ben to come into my life :)

we waited for him to get his orders

we waited (although not very long) to get married and move :)

we waited to move back to the states after our 3 yrs in japan

we waited for ben's college to be done and for the next chapter

we've waited to buy a house...settle down... start a family...

we've waited for many things.


each season of waiting and each thing we wait for has different challenges.
but the Lord teaches us patience, faith and trust during each of the seasons.
and more importantly, He teaches us that His plans are not our plans, and His ways are not our ways, and how we think things should go, or how we try to plan things for our life may not be what He wants for us.

sometimes it's hard to let go of those things we want and the timeframe we want them to happen, and to trust that the Lord's ways are the best.

a few lessons that have come through seasons of waiting for me:

DON'T COMPARE!

we need to remember not to compare ourselves to others and what they have. sometimes our life has seemed so very different from those of our friends who got married right out of college, bought a house, had a baby, settled down and stayed in one job. our life is NOTHING like that. sometimes we wonder why things have been different for us, but it does nobody any good to compare. the Lord has a plan for each of us, and every plan is different! and just because some people may have what you want, it doesn't mean that you don't have things they want also. the grass is always greener on the other side, right? just food for thought. let us be thankful for what we do have and strive to be content with where the Lord has us, even if it's in the waiting game.

DON'T GET STUCK in the WAITING

don't let your mind and heart be so focused on what you're waiting for that you aren't in the present and living the life the Lord has for you RIGHT NOW. (i'm reminding myself of this as much as anything, because i know from experience this is so much easier to say than it is to put into practice!) it is great to dream and to hope and to want things, but it's not good to be so focused on what we want to happen next that we forget to be present in the here-and-now, focused on what He's teaching us and doing in us, and the things He wants us to do while we are waiting!

i just want to encourage you today if you're waiting for something - the Lord knows our hearts. He knows what we want, and this verse is always so encouraging to me in seasons of waiting:

"for i know the plans i have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper and not harm you, to give you a future and a hope". jer 29:11

may we cling to this promise, and remember that the Lord has a plan for us, and it's better than what we could ever imagine for ourselves :)

tuesday treat: tacos/tortilla soup

The treat about today's recipe is that it's actually 2 recipes! :)

Last week I tried a pinterest recipe for

CROCKPOT CHICKEN TACOS

So simple:

2-3 chicken breasts
1 jar salsa (I used Pace medium)
1 packet taco seasoning (I used McCormick)

Combine ingredients, give it a stir, and then leave it!
6-8 hours on low, 4-6 hours on high.

When it's finished, the chicken shreds very easily and we had ours as soft tacos in tortillas, with lettuce, cheese, salsa, and I used a bit of greek yogurt instead of sour cream. So yummy!

The second recipe you get out of this is to use the leftover chicken meat (it makes alot, especially for just 2 people) to make:

CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

(same source)

I looked a few different recipes and used what I had and what we like, so my recipe is a bit different than the one she posted, but same basic idea :)
Here's what I used:

Leftover shredded chicken meat
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small chopped onion
24-32 oz chicken broth (I put in a little less as I like to make soup a little more chunky)
Chili powder
Onion powder
Cumin
Salt
Pepper (Spices to taste)

Shredded Cheese (I used Monterrey Jack)
Tortilla strips (I used Mission)




Dump everything in the crockpot besides the cheese and tortilla strips. Give it a stir and leave it - Same directions as before - 6-8 hours on low, 4-6 hours on high. When ready to serve, scoop out into a bowl and top with cheese and tortilla strips. This was great and I loved being able to use the chicken meat in a different way!

The crockpot is so great too, because once you have everything dumped in and it's hot, it's ready to eat whenever! Run your errands, and you can leave it cooking so it's ready when you are. It also makes your kitchen smell delicious all day :)

If you try these, let me know what you think! Ben and I were definitely a fan!

make it monday: anthro letters

Today is the first post for "Make it Mondays"!

Since we have moved back to the states, I have been working on lots of crafts and projects that I wasn't able to do on the island.

Today's project is:

KNOCK OFF ANTHROPOLOGIE LETTERS

I'm sure alot of you have seen these Anthro letters:


I had pinned this tutorial on pinterest, making the letters E-A-T for the kitchen, but I don't really have a place to put them in my kitchen.

when my friend Jan posted this link for B-A-T-H for the bathroom and I knew I wanted to try it! :)


I bought 4 cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby, some Martha Stewart paint (sterling), and decided to give it a try.

Start with your blank letter:


And your paint:


I used a foam paintbrush to put 2 thin coats on:


After the letters dried, I hung them in the bathroom over the towel rack:


And that's it! Super easy DIY. :)


Here's a rundown of the cost.

Anthropologie letters are $18 a piece

The blank letters I found at Hobby Lobby were $2.47 a piece, plus they were 50% off, making them only $1.24 each (so 4 were around $5)
I used a 40% off coupon for the Martha Stewart metallic paint, so it was only $1.30

Total cost for 4 Anthro letters: $72

Total cost for my 4 letters: $6.30

I was pretty happy with that deal! :)
Happy Monday everyone!

thankful thursday: may 2nd

it should be everyday that i find at least 1 thing that i'm thankful for, but i'd like to at least make an effort to post about it once a week. even when things are hard, there's always something to be thankful for. i try to think of things in that way, even though i don't always want to.

something i'm thankful for this week:

GOD NEVER GIVES UP ON US.

what a blessing. He teaches us, guides us, loves us and will teach us the same lesson over and over and over. if you're anything like me, then there are lessons He's been teaching you for years. some of them i have a harder time learning than others.

sometimes my mom will say (about a tough situation) "you better learn your lesson from this situation the first time so He doesn't have to try to teach you this one again!" :) since she first said that, i've repeated that to myself often.

i came across a journal the other day while organizing some of our things in the office, and read some of the entries i had written years ago. i am still struggling now with some of the same things i was then. finding my place, doing what the Lord has for me, being content regardless of what situation i find myself in -- when things are nothing like i pictured things or wanted them to be. thank goodness He knows what's best. and i find such comfort in knowing that He hasn't given up on me. i'm still learning and He's still willing to teach me. and the same is true for all of His children.

that's something i'm thankful for today... and everyday.

wednesday words: stuff

the first in hopefully many wednesday posts about life lessons.

i'm sure if you're reading this blog, you probably know that since ben and i became mr. and mrs., we've moved. A LOT. (some of you are laughing, agreeing that this is an understatement!) we've moved more than most couples we know probably ever will).

we've lived in 3 different countries, 5 different homes, and 4 different places. we now consider ourselves pros at packing. :) while that definitely can be fun, it can also be pretty challenging, and sometimes hard to put down roots, never knowing how long we're going to be in one place.

one of the lessons i've definitely learned over the all our moves during the last 6 years is:

STUFF IS JUST STUFF

as you can imagine, we've gone through our share of "stuff" during all our moves. when we very first moved to japan, we could only bring about half of our stuff. wedding presents that we had just received stayed in boxes in my parents basement, knowing that we wouldn't have a very big place there, and we didn't want to bring too much.
as i packed for our first overseas move, i really had to ask myself "is this important to me? can i live without this for 3 years?"
stuff takes on a different feel when you have to look at it that way. there are many things that remained in storage for those 3 years that i didn't miss one little bit and that didn't make the next move with us. something that's been SO helpful is to remind myself that "stuff is just stuff". our stuff does not (and should not!) define who we are.

yes - we all have stuff that we love, stuff we hold onto, stuff we think we can't do without, but you'd be surprised what you really can do without. this last year in the bahamas, we packed the littlest amount of our stuff in all our moves to date, and our place was absolutely the smallest of any place we've had. it was basically the size of a hotel room. we did without most of our things, and whatever we brought with us was what could fit in a car. while that was certainly a challenge, it was also kind of freeing to not be tied to too much "stuff". something i've discovered is that friends that have lived in one place or who haven't left america don't always understand this mentality because i have observed that america is all about STUFF. how much or how big or how fancy your stuff is.

ever since i've met my husband, he has not been attached to stuff. when we moved him from maryland to my parents house for the month before our wedding, all the things he had to his name fit in the backseat of my car. i've always had more stuff than him (he would certainly agree, i'm sure) :) and he has taught me so much in regards to this issue too, and his perspective has helped me adopt the "stuff is just stuff" mentality.

basically, the lesson is this: stuff doesn't matter. it's just stuff. don't let it tie you down and don't let your worth be caught up in your stuff. it's not going to last past this life anyways. do your best to let go of things that you're holding on to a little too tightly and use your stuff to bless others as much as you can. (that's a whole other lesson for a different day).

i think that if we can adopt this mentality and focus more on the people around us rather than things, we'll all be a little better off. :)