Vintage Sheet Quilt #2 with a Bonus Pillow!

 So here's my latest quilt, once again made from vintage sheets, and since I mentioned a few posts ago that I wanted to make some smaller things this summer, I also made a small(ish) matching pillow.

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The bear in the middle of the pillow is fussy cut from a vintage pillowcase.  The way the colours of the bear match with the other sheets is kind of, you know, perfect.  I'm sure you quilters have had that little moment of delight when you realise your chosen fabrics just click.  I may or may not have insistently called my husband to come check it out immediately (!)  I mean I had to show him that the extra stop at the thrift store where I bought the pillowcase had indeed been necessary after all -- I now had irrefutable proof.

 The quilt is made of 6 inch squares set on point.  The focal fabric is a striped sheet.  The other fabrics in the blocks are all florals.

 The quilt is about 42 by 56 -- just a nice cosy size for my four-year-old daughter.  I quilted it with a wavy line stitch just off to one side of the seams.

 I quilted the pillow too.  The pillow is 20 inches square.  I had bought several unopened Ikea pillow forms at a neighbour's yard sale for 50 cents each.  I think I probably would have preferred more fully stuffed forms if I was buying them at the store, but my daughter likes how squishy the pillow is -- meaning it is good for hugging.

 You can see the quilt backing in this photo.  It is a pretty pink floral.  The binding is a pale yellow.  All fabric is cut from vintage poly-cotton sheets.

 The batting is cotton bamboo.  The quilt is nice and light and soft.

My daughter discovered that the back of the pillow and the deep pocket I made is a perfect miniature cosy bed.

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I'm hanging out with other crafty sorts at {Sew} Modern Monday and Manic Monday.  Happy 4th of July to my friends in the USA!

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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U



Vintage Sheet Test Quilt Complete

 So here is the result of my first venture into quilting with vintage sheets!  I am very pleased.  These are simple 6 inch squares set on point. The quilt is 44 by 52.  I quilted the width of my presser foot along each seam with a wavy line in a pale pink thread.  The backing and binding are also cut from vintage sheets.  The batting is some lovely cotton bamboo that I bought a few miles of when I saw it for a great deal at my favourite liquidation store.  (Click any photo to enlarge if you wish)

 Last post I got a few questions about these sheets.  I thought I'd do a little Q and A in case anyone else is wondering ...

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1.  What do you mean by vintage?  These are between about 30 and 40 years old in my nearest guesstimation.  Some actually had dates on the tags.  Some I remember from childhood.  Some you can just tell after looking at a lot of these sheets -- simply by the style of design and colours used. 

 2. Are they 100% cotton? No. They are a 50% cotton and 50% polyester split. I specifically bought ones that were a 50/50 combo. I am a fussy, er, I mean discerning fabric shopper and in most cases the 100% cotton sheets I saw looked too worn to me. These cotton/poly ones really don't show their age much, other than being slightly faded in colour in some cases. They are not obviously bally or fuzzy looking, nor do they seem worn (just soft). The 50/50 blend makes them very durable to stand the test of time.  I know it is hard to tell in the photos, but the quilt looks very fresh and clean and new. 

 3.  How can you tell what they are made of?  Fortunately most have labels.  But after handling a few you will be able to tell by the look and feel.  The labels are usually near a corner of the sheet sewn into the seam.  They should indicate 50% cotton and 50% polyester.  They also may say things like "no iron muslin" "no iron percale" or "percale."

 4.  How are they to work with?  Great.  They are super easy to cut and I managed to cut up to ten layers at once a couple of times!  They sew well.  The only thing that was a bit funny was the ironing.  Because they are "no iron" or I guess wrinkle-resistant is what we say now, it was tricky to press the seams open.  My seams didn't lay, or stay, as flat as with cotton.  And when I folded the binding and pressed it, the fold gradually came out as I stitched it to the back of the quilt.

 And the best thing about these sheets -- the price!!  The total cost for fabric in this quilt was less than $5.00 -- and that's including the backing and binding.
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Plus I should mention that the quilt is cozy.  It passed my Sunday-afternoon-nap test and Tess slept with it last night.

And since the Vintage Sheet Test Quilt is a horrible name for a quilt, the quilt shall be known from now on as Summer's Parfait which was suggested by Devona and suits it so well.

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And yes, my vintage sheet adventure continues with another work-in-progress which I have about halfway done.

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And for some linky fun, I'm hanging with other crafty sorts at {Sew} Modern Monday, Manic Monday , Made by You Monday and Fabric Tuesday. Thanks for stopping by!
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Posted by Riel Nason on The Q and the U

I Spy Planet Hexy Quilt Top

This is possibly the strangest quilt I've made yet, but I think I LOVE strange.  My son Eli (he's six) and I decided together to call this quilt I Spy Planet Hexy.  Those tall pointy triangles are towers.  All the hexies are piled ever-so-carefully on top of them. (Click any photo to enlarge if you wish)

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It is my own design.  I can't remember the thought process that led me to this, but it was a jump from idea to idea to idea before I came to Planet Hexy.

This quilt is for my son who will be finished kindergarten on June 24.  I must say I love a good milestone as an excuse to make another quilt.  *wink*

It is made all from scraps or stash.  I didn't buy any new fabric for it.  The hexies are I Spy scraps.  The towers are Kona scraps left from my I Spy mega quilt (back at my house now waiting for binding).  The sky background is fabric I had bought as a possibility for the background of The Selvage Snowman quilt, but it had been too light for that.  The grey rock fabric is some I had bought for a pillowcase but didn't use.

There are 146 one inch hexagons in it.  I'll probably add a few more to take it to 150.  I was wary of overdoing it with the hexies that are falling off the towers, but I think a few more wouldn't hurt anything, we'll see.

I am planning to quilt it myself.  I think I will do some very simple straight lines.  Unfortunately my sewing machine has had a bit of a bad attitude lately and has been throwing some thread-tangling tantrums, so it will need to go in for repair before I attempt any quilting.

You may remember that the I Spy hexies were supposed to be my summer travelling project.  Well, I'm still going to make more.  I have more ideas for them.  And my daughter Tess could always use her own hexy quilt.

Now an off topic message: Happy Birthday Dad!

And for some linky fun, I'm hanging out with other talented crafty sorts at {Sew} Modern Monday , Made by You Monday , Manic Monday ... and of course I have to party with Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.  Click any link to see piles of fabulous projects by bloggers from around the world!

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Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Quilting!

His and Hers Mug Rug

 A little while ago my mom mentioned that she and my father wouldn't mind having a couple of mug rugs ... you know that they liked to drink tea and coffee ... hint, hint, HINT ..

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So here is the first one for them.  It is a His and Hers Mug Rug which is 100% inspired by my His and Hers Quilt.  The blue bird is Dad and the pink one is Mom.  (But don't worry they don't have to share the mug rug.  I'll make another one for them eventually.)

 Here it is on the His and Hers Quilt, which is our everyday bed quilt.  Unfortunately that blue bird is the very last of the fabric that I have.  I LOVE the fabric.  It is Mod Girls "Patsy" by Jennifer Paganelli and is out of print.  I love it so much because there is something very nostalgic about it for me.  Growing up we had three chairs from an old church that my Mom reupholstered in fabric that had birds just like that.  I have had my mother search for old photos showing the chairs, but to no avail.  I would love to see just how close the birds are, to see how good my memory is.

 As further proof of how much I like the fabric, here it is in green on cream.  That is a picture of one of my dining room curtains.

And I see lots of cat pictures on other people's blogs, so here is my contribution.  We don't have any cats as my husband is allergic, but this cat visits outside in the yard sometimes.  We call him Snowball, but his real name is Crosby (as in Sidney Crosby).  The cat lives down the street.  It is a funny, friendly cat.  It got on the school bus one day with the kids.  You can imagine the excitement that caused for the elementary school kids!  The bus driver didn't notice and was quite surprised when a parent told her and she had to find the cat and carry him out.

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I'm going to try a new linky party today called A Crafty Soiree.  Happy Quilting!

Fabulous Four Birthday Quilt Coordinates

 So, it's the big birthday today!  We are up early and my now four-year-old daughter Tess is sitting on my lap watching me post these pictures of her new room deco.  It was fun for me to sneak into her room as she slept last night and change out the curtains and put her new quilt over her.

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I showed the pennants the other day, and I also made a valance.  And the quilt of course.  A pillowcase is still to come.  It's times like this that I am so glad I learned to sew.  I'm sure you quilters know what I mean.

Okay, time to start decorating for the party. 

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Tomorrow is the big Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day which I will be participating in. 

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Happy Quilting!
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Edited to add on May 24:  I thought I'd link this up to Fabric Tuesday since that's always a fun linky!

Not a Wink Quilt for Bloggers Quilt Festival

Hi, welcome! I finished the binding on this quilt just in time for it to be my virtual exhibit in the Bloggers Quilt Festival. I've named it the Not a Wink Quilt because it is so wild, bright and crazy it just might keep you up all night -- hence Not a Wink of sleep.
It is an all-scrap quilt except for the sashing. It is almost 100 inches square, for our queen-sized bed, so it was a great scrapbuster.

When I first decided to make a scrap quilt, I thought a lot about what type of square I would like to make. I finally came up with my own design for a block which is a variation of a traditional railfence. I call it the Scrapbuster Random Railfence Block and a full tutorial to make it is here. It uses 2.5 inch strips of any length and makes 12 inch squares. I think what made me the happiest about it is that although the method is very straightforward, no two blocks turn out the same.

So after I had my block design decided, I made 36 squares and watched my scrap pile shrink, shrink, shrink.

I decided to use sashing to set the squares apart. As you can see I went with a nice subtle sashing, hee, hee. If you've been by the blog before, you know I love bright colours, but this hot pink polka dot sashing was even a little out there for me. I almost changed my mind about it, but I'm glad I didn't.

I really like the cat in this square. Because I had lots of novelty fabric scraps, the quilt has a bit on an I-Spy feature which my kids like.

The backing is a print called Heart Throb by Free Spirit. It is bound in a hot pink which matched the sashing.

Because of the massive size, I sent it out to be quilted. I tried a new long-arm quilter this time, Gilbert Crevier of 3A Quilting, and he did a great job. I chose a pantograph that says "Love" which I think was an unexpected choice, and I realised after it may have been intended more for borders than an overall pattern, but I am so happy with how it looks.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If it's your first time here, please feel free to stay a while and browse. Then when you're ready if you click here you can head over to the list of all the participants in the Bloggers Quilt Festival. There are lots and lots of fabulous quilts to see. Happy Quilting!

Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show

I went to the opening of the Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, NB last night. I thought it was just a night to browse the quilts and have a sneak peek before the show opened to the public today.

My friend Tanya and I went. When we arrived no one was around and I thought that maybe the time had been changed. (When I dropped off my quilts on Sunday the time had been changed for set-up and no one let me know, so I figured it had happened again.)

Anyway, it turned out that everyone was in a theatre room for the awards announcement. I didn't realise there was an actual presentation; I had thought that the ribbons were simply placed on the quilts and people were given a program with the winners list ...

So it was cool to see the ribbons given out. It really added an element of excitement to the whole thing.
Sue McEachern who is in the KVQG with me won big. See the four ribbons on her quilt -- including Best of Show. Sue is a talented, kind and generous quilter who has volunteered to give me some tips on free-motion quilting should I ever dive in ...

And it was really fun that I was there, because my lighthouse quilt won 1st place in the Large Contemporary category. Thanks to Tanya for taking this picture. (I quickly checked that the quilt police weren't around before not just touching, but grabbing my quilt).

The show is on until Sunday and I will be going back tomorrow with my family. I hope to get lots of pictures to post here. I was so, so impressed with all the fabulous stuff at the show!

Happy Quilting!

Fabulous Four Birthday Quilt Finished

This is the birthday quilt I made for my daughter's upcoming fourth birthday. The big day isn't until May 22, but for the next month our family calendar is full of both lots of fun stuff and some writing-related deadlines for me, so I wanted to get it done early.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It is just a super simple strip quilt, but I think the fabrics really work together so well.

The two feature fabrics are the "Fabulous, Fantastic ... Four" fabric and one called "When I Grow Up" with lots of little girls dressed up.
I quilted it in both straight and wavy lines. I used pink, yellow and turquoise thread in a random order. I just changed the thread whenever I felt like it. (I kept the same pink in the bobbin the whole time for the back)
The backing is the "Fabulous Four" fabric and the binding is the zig zag stripe.

I have lots of fabric left and I'm planning to make a matching pillowcase and maybe even a little pillowcase dress for her.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Easter!

His and Hers Quilt Complete Pattern Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial for the "His and Hers Quilt" inspired by a conversation with my husband (read more in the original post here if you like).

This pattern will make a nice big quilt of 99 by 100 inches. It fits well on our queen-sized bed. It's a very simple straight-ahead pattern with no fancy sewing manoeuvres needed. It's really just a fun and funky variation of a coin quilt. Kind of like a coin quilt with attitude if you will.

I think the trickiest part of the quilt is really choosing the fabrics that will give you the maximum impact. Once you have those, it's smooth sailing!

So here we go ...

I am going to refer to the fabrics that make up the unpieced strips in this quilt as the "Feature Fabrics." You will need 3 yards of His Feature fabric and 3 yards of Hers Feature Fabric. I say go big, go bold, have fun! The same fabric in two colourways works well. And although the print should be large scale, I would suggest a fabric with only two or three colours in it, so the whole thing isn't way over the top and looking like a crazy busy circus (I know my quilts often do look like that, but this time I would advise against it.)Then you will need 10 Fat Quarters of coordinating His Fabric and 10 Fat Quarters of coordinating Hers Fabric. When choosing these prints, really try to come up with a nice variety of patterns and colours -- some with a bigger print, some with a tinier one, some monochromatic, some geometric, some novelty, some floral, you get the idea ...

So to quickly recap: You need 3 yards plus 10 FQs for EACH of the His and Hers sides. You will eventually need 7.5 yards (!!!) for backing. No need to buy anything extra for binding as you will be able to cut your binding from the leftover feature fabrics. And onto cutting ... Get out the longest ruler you have and cut your feature fabric vertically into strips that are 9.5 inches wide and a whopping 100 inches long! Cut three His strips and three Hers strips. Next start cutting the fat quarters. You will be able to cut 8 rectangles of 8 by 4.5 inches from each fat quarter (assuming you have at least 16 by 18 inches of usable fabric -- which you certainly should, even taking into account crooked cutting, frayed edges due to pre-washing, or, maybe like me, cutting off the selvage to save) This means you will cut 80 His rectangles and 80 Hers rectangles.

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Now, for something more fun, start arranging your rectangles into strips, stacking them so the 8.5 inch sides are touching. Make three tall strips of 25 rectangles each (for each of the His and Hers sides, 6 all total). Yes, you have 80 rectangles cut and only need 75 per side, but this will give you more design leeway in arranging everything, giving a good overall mix of fabrics, and making sure that no two pieces the same are too near each other. Move everything around until you are happy with the arrangement of your three His rectangle strips and your three Hers rectangle strips. Sew all the rectangles together using a 1/4 inch seam. Backstitch the end of each seam. Press your seams as you like. I press my seams open, just because that's my thing. Next arrange all the vertical strips, alternating between feature fabric strips and rectangle strips. Notice in the photo how the His and Hers feature fabric strips meet in the middle and then the alternating strips move outward from there. The rectangle strips should technically be 100.5 inches long at this point, as compared to 100 inches for the feature fabric strips. This gives a smidge of wiggle room if you needed it. If your seams are absolutely perfect (never happens here), you could trim 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of each rectangle strip, making it exactly 100 inches before sewing the strips together.

Of special note, the His and Hers sides of the quilt in this case reflect the sleeping positions of my husband and I ... in your case it may be on opposite sides, so arrange your fabric accordingly! Notice how I labelled the strips above. Sew them together two at a time until all are sewn together. Use a 1/4 inch seam. I would sew one half of the quilt all together first, then the other, then the two halves together at the end. Cut binding strips from your leftover feature fabrics.

Back, quilt and bind. Bind with His fabric on the His side and Hers fabric on the Hers.

Enjoy!

Of special note, in my original quilt I used a feature fabric with birds and I wanted the birds to line up with each other. If you do choose a feature fabric with an element that you want to line up, you will likely need more than 3 yards to be sure it can be done.

Also, although the amount of FQs for this quilt works out nicely, you can easily substitute scraps for many rectangles to save cash and add more variety.

If you do make one of these quilts I would LOVE to see it. Please email (just click my complete profile on the sidebar above to get to the link with my email).

This pattern is for personal use. It was fun to finally get this posted here as the original idea for this quilt was on my to-do list forever and now it is 100% done and out there. I will happily answer any questions or clarify anything that may be confusing. I am far from any sort of quilting expert, but this is how I made my quilt, and it turned out pretty, straight and sturdy.

Good luck and Happy Quilting!