Cleaning Out the Closets--I Finally Came Up With a Good Christmas Gift Idea

So, in case you haven't noticed from all of the Ebay listings and other rants, I've been trying to clean out all the old stuff in this house that nobody needs. While preparing a very large donation bag of clothes, I noticed we had a ridiculous number of old Little League baseball jerseys of all sizes and teams. My husband (and I, unofficially) have coached Little League since our oldest was about 12 or 13. He's 19 now and his younger brother is 15, also now too old for the regular season play of Little League. So we considered this past Spring season to be our last season as Little Leaguers. It was a pretty good time, lots of great baseball games, lots of great kids and great parents. My husband and I have now both served on the Board of Directors, but I am trying to remove that part of the experience from my mind and just remember all the good parts. In remembering the good parts, I wanted to do something sentimental and cool with all of these old jerseys rather than give them to Goodwill. I'm thinking I will make a little throw quilt out of them, backed in some nice solid fleece. I think it would make a great gift for my husband for Christmas (don't worry, my husband has never read my blog, I don't think, and even if he does, we're not that big on surprises anyway). Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on making a memory quilt? I can tell you that the regular seams between the shirt-fronts will be done with a zig-zag stitch (I don't have a Serger machine, just a Singer). Should I pick a contrast color, like red, and have the stitching show? What should I do about the edges? I made a fleece blanket once by taking two big pieces of fleece fabric and cutting fringe into the edges, then tying the fringe together, so I suppose I could do that. I should probably make a decision on these things so I can get it done before Christmas, along with all the other stuff I'd like to get done in time for Christmas. Not to mention, daughter's birthday is coming up, and she wants me to design her tattoo. More to come on that...

Back to Work...Well, Sort of

This weekend was full of Little League Baseball games, cleaning up the yard, rain (not a good combination), and a little bit of drawing. I took my sketchpad to the ball field (Usually when it's my own kid's game, my husband is the coach and I'm official scorekeeper. This Saturday, my kid was pool-playing for another team because they were short.) and started in on this idea I had after being inspired by some other people's work. My husband accused me of making this little creature to resemble someone from Little League, but if I did, it was subconsciously influenced only.

He was only about half-way finished by the time that game was over, and a brief jaunt to Taco Cabana later, I was back at our home field acting as Field Monitor (exactly as interesting as it sounds). After finally getting to consume my Taco Cabana burrito, I was sitting on the bleachers at a girls' softball game, finishing him up. Despite the home team's designated Chihuahua's best attempt to pose as my model, I finished him all up and put the book away to avoid any damage or criticism.

Yesterday morning, I scanned him in and got him all digitally gussied up. I switched up his colors, started with some color in his main body, then thought better of it and just left his main body white. Overall, I really like the way it turned out!

I guess it's time for me to get back to all of my other work, now. I have quite the list of responsibilities I've got to take care of today.

"Mister Softee" is now available for sale as a 6" x 8" archival print here.