I'm baaaaaack!

So, let's state the obvious: it's been almost 2 months since I posted. I've been kicking myself about it throughout my entire hiatus, but I just haven't found the energy for blogging. In preparation for this post, I took a bunch of pictures of all of the things I've made lately (I have been making things, I swear!), but even then, I wasn't quite sure where to start. 

Since the Refashioners challenge is going on right now, and since I'd really love to win that prize pack, let's start with that project, shall we? When I first started getting into sewing a few years ago, the couple of blogs that I followed were very big into refashioning. I saw so many cute projects made with men's button-down shirts, so I headed off to Goodwill and picked up quite a few of them (at fill-a-bag prices, they were only about $0.25 each!). 

After just one failed refashion attempt, I threw the remaining shirts in a corner and forgot about them...until I saw this picture of a quilt top that Sewaholic had been working on, and knew I had to do the same. 

[It was a windy day, I swear (/hope) it's straight!]

Luckily, the shirts I'd picked out way back when had a very unified color scheme! Cutting the shirts apart was a task, but I plopped down on the floor with some good (trashy) T.V. and set about getting as many usable pieces of fabric as I could. I decided to go with
6" x 6" blocks to maximize fabric. I also decided, kind of last-minute, to keep the pockets as a fun little detail. 

When it came time to do the actual quilting, I was inspired by Handmade Jane's method, and went with complementary blue thread to fit the theme. I also found some random gray cotton in my stash that I decided to use for the binding (very proud that I decided not to go out and buy store-bought binding for this one). 

The layout took me a while, but I like how the alternating vertical-horizontal stripes stripes turned out. 

I had no idea what to use for the back, but I stumbled on some great chambray at Wal-Mart for $1/yard! After washing, it turns out that it's not actually so great (though I shouldn't be surprised at that price tag) - it tears easily, so I'll have to be really careful when using this. I do like the look of the quilting on the back, though!

I have no idea how big this is, but there's a fair bit hanging over the edge of the fence at the top. Maybe a skinny twin? I can't decide if I want to keep this for myself or give it as a gift, but I do know that I love it!
 

Bonus: I've got extra bit all pieced (though I'm not sure how to finish it, because it's really not big enough for anything). Any ideas?

Anyway, hopefully I can get back to my regular blogging schedule soon (although my upcoming trip to Istanbul might throw a wrench in that - I definitely plan to buy ALL of the fabric, though, I'll have to show you when I get back!).