Breaking out of our jam rut

At our house the preferred jam of choice is Raspberry.
Homemade.
Hands down!
I think there are a few kids who won't even try anything else.
Sad day for them this year as my raspberry patch is no more.
Dead from a Japanese Beetle attack.
It really is a sad day for all of us, but not much I can do now.

So I am trying a couple different jam recipes than we haven't had in the past.

Last week I made Strawberry-Blueberry Freezer Jam.





I made homemade bread the next day to give with a jar of jam to the teachers as a thank you.
It is always a hit with people.
I also gave one to my stylist.
I've brought her bread and/or jam before.
She told me she hides her jar in the back of the fridge so she doesn't have to share with her family.

Details:

• Recipe here.  
• I used frozen blueberries that I bought at Sam's.  I just measured out the amount and then let them thaw in the fridge overnight.  I drained off the melted liquid before chopping them up.
• We prefer freezer jams normally, but the Sure-Jell packages come with cooked jam recipes too.
• I was able to get 9 - 1/2 pints out of this recipe.

Graduation T-shirt Quilt--for daughter #1

This is the first t-shirt quilt of 5 (4 more over the next 11 years) that I will make for each of my children as they graduate from high school.

I'm so so happy that I got L.'s graduation quilt back in time from our quilter, Lynn.
It arrived on Monday.
I put the binding on it on Tuesday and graduation was Thursday night.


Although she knew which shirts I had used, I didn't really let her see it until it was completely put together. And once it showed up she didn't want to see it until actual graduation day.  The next 2 kids down were my picture helpers and they were quite envious.  Once again they wanted confirmation that they too would be getting a quilt when they graduate.

Here are some close-ups of the quilting and a couple of the t-shirt blocks.





Since there were a number of swimming related shirts Lynn did a meander that appears somewhat like water or waves.  She then did the borders in a different little motif.  I really love how it all turned out.





I just think this will be a fun quilt for her to have for college and beyond.



Details:

• Finished dimensions:  74 1/2 inches wide by 81 inches long.
• We used about 8 adult t-shirts including both the front and back.  Then added a couple solos here and there as needed. If you are using on the fronts of shirts you'd need about 16 for this size/style quilt.
• Started with 16 inch squares on most shirts.
• Apply lightweight interfacing to the wrong side of each shirt piece you are using to stabilize them.  I just went to Jo-Ann's and bought a bolt of their least expensive interfacing and used my coupon.  For sure I used at least 10 yds. of interfacing putting this together.
• Kona charcoal sashing and borders.  Cut 2 1/2 strips for between the columns and 4 1/2 strips for the outer borders.
• Orange and white chevron flannel from Jo-Ann's for backing.  $3.49/yd on sale.  Bought 6 yards to make sure I had enough room to match the print.
• Found a fun navy polka-dot print for the binding.

Notes:
Preview post here.
For more ideas here is my friend Ann's posts on her kids' t-shirt quilts.
And Emily's favorite babysitter's graduation t-shirt quilt.
I found these layout ideas helpful in planning what I was going to do: here, here, and here.

Black Tie Swimsuit Model

Here is a pic of little Miss C. sent to me by her mom Holly.
I gave her this suit last summer at her baby shower.

Thanks Holly for letting me see her.  She looks darling!!