A birthday gift to my dear brother

My dear little brother turned 26 last Tuesday, and even though I got his present ready the Thursday before that, I couldn't write about it here before he had gotten the present. Would have been kinda silly: him knowing beforehand what he would get, just because I wrote about it beforehand!

Anyway, I have the hardest time buying presents for my brother. That doesn't mean I don't try - oh boy do I try! But sometimes, finding him a present is like finding ice in Sahara. Just not plausible.
So, I try to do what my dear mother once told me about buying Christmas presents:

"Try to look for Christmas presents for people during the whole year, not just in December"

Sometimes, I actually manage come across things that are *perfect*. I found an alarm clock in a this weird interior decorating store (the clock had skulls on it...), and ever since my brother bought me a matching set of 3 raspberry colored kitchen containers with skulls on them... well, let's just say that it's become a "thing" for us two.

Alarm clock aside, I needed to -create- something for him too. That was where this came in:

It's part of an old T-shirt me and Harald got from our cousins in the US, years and years ago. It's a size L, and had been used as a PJ until the fabric got kinda ratty at places and it was stored away. Since I still thought the print was in good shape, and also since I just *couldn't* throw it away... I decided that I could make it the center piece in a quilt. The artist behind the cartoon print is Gary Larson, in case you're wondering.

After skimming through the clothes I had stoved away, I found two old T-shirts (one mine, one Micke's), two trousers (both mine), and some rest fabrics from my gray skirt I thought I could use. A trip to Eurokangas (a store) got me the padded material to use as the middle part, and a trip to IKEA with Mimi and Petter got me some cheap cotton to use as the back. From the sewing things I had inherited from both my grandmothers, I got white thread and some black ribbon to use for edging the quilt.

After some sewing, some more sewing, and a trip to Sally to sew the rest (I managed to make my own machine go kaputt in the process!), I finally got a quilt made that I thought was pretty neat. As well as a very personal gift; sewn by me, but containing bits and pieces from our whole family.

Trying to create a pattern.

I had hundreds of these small cut-aways all over the house by the time I was finished!

I finally decided - with Micke's help - on using
some of the small cut-aways as a decor element!


This is how large it became: about 1 m x 2 m. I needed to put it on the table while I was trying to fit the bottom and padding. Then, I needed to needle them together.