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Another Happy Recipient!

 I finished another t-shirt quilt for a very special friend, Swapna Kakani!  I have so much respect and admiration for this young lady.  She has gone through a lot in her life and never complains and always has a smile on her face.  I was very honored to make this quilt for her.  I hope every time she uses it, she remembers that she has a friend who is thinking of her and praying for her constantly!  She actually came over and helped work on it.  She had never learned to sew before, so I tried to be a good teacher and give her some really good lessons on building quilts and working with tshirts.  

She graduated from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.  So she had all of her old t-shirts that she wanted made into a quilt.  We were going to do a double sided quilt, UAB shirts on one side and her charity work shirts on the other side.  (Here is where my admiration comes in...she has so many things going on in her own life, but she's constantly trying to figure out ways to give back through charity work!  That says a ton about her character and the values that her parents have instilled in her.)  But she decided she'd rather have two quilts instead.  She's going to let me "rag" her other t-shirt quilt!  I'm very excited about that!  I've been wanting to make a "rag" quilt for a while now. 

 I made this label on my Babylock Unity machine.  I also did the pretty border by connecting several sewing designs on my Unity.  I love my sewing machine! Have I said that before?! Well, let me say it again!! I LOVE MY BABYLOCK UNITY!!!  It has so many different useful features for quilters.  Making labels is just one of them!  I just purchased some software from DIME (Designs in Machine Embroidery) for quilting!  I'm very excited about that also!  I'll add more on my blog about that as I learn to use it.  (DIME...are you listening?  I'd be happy to test out your software for you and do projects!)

I have not had any problems with any of the embroidery I have done on my Unity. I would highly recommend a Babylock sewing machine to anyone.  

 The finished quilt ended up being a king size quilt, approximately 106 wide by 110 long. (Swapna and her dad are actually standing on a table holding up the quilt.  They aren't really that tall!)  I never know how big they will be until I cut up the t-shirts and start laying them out.  I knew this one would end up large.  I think Swapna did a great job on picking out her colors.  She told me I started a bad habit.  Now when she goes to a store, she seeks out fabric and gets samples!  Not a bad habit...in my opinion!  You're never too young to start your own fabric stash!
I used the rest of the material and made a scrappy looking back for the quilt.  It is very difficult on such a large quilt to layer the quilt "sandwich" so it was slightly crooked.  But that's why it's called "handmade".  It makes it very unique.  I did tell Swapna that from now on, unless I'm "quilting as I go", only one backing material color is allowed! 

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