Friday, May 17, 2013

Vintage Sheets in a Quilt

Like I said in a recent post, it's apparently all the rage to use vintage sheets in making quilts. And, no wonder, since lots of older sheets were well-made, are still in good condition, and have pretty designs that you just don't see any more.

Vintage Sheet Throw Quilt

Not long ago, I was surprised to find a sheet set I recognized at the thrift store. (Gotta love thrift-store fabric!) This sheet is the exact kind that my grandmother ALWAYS kept on my great-grandfather's bed. I've never seen one just like it anywhere else. 

Vintage Sheet with Roses - Brown, Yellow, Orange

Naturally, I had to buy the set. ($2.00 for the set of two? Yes, thank you!) And, naturally, I had to make something special. For starters, I added some snowball corners (of shirt fabric) to squares of the vintage sheet, and to squares of another (not-so-vintage) sheet.

ProsperityStuff Snowball Corners on Vintage Sheets

The snowball-corners construction is just like one of the window-quilts I made a few months ago. I talked about the style & inspiration for that one in this post.

I made the quilt top big enough to be a nice throw-sized quilt, added backing and batting and "doodled" all over it with a basic free-motion quilting design.

ProsperityStuff Free Motion Quilting on Vintage Sheet Quilt

Did I mention that I just discovered how much easier a darning foot makes the job?! A while back, I found a ridiculously great deal on a basic, simple, no-frills, old-but-barely-used sewing machine ... The sewing machine came with a walking foot and a darning foot!!! Super deal!

ProsperityStuff Detail of Free-Motion Quilting with Darning Foot

I actually got this little quilt put together pretty quickly, which was nice.

ProsperityStuff Detail of Free-Motion on Vintage Sheet Quilt

I love how the finished product looks from different angles.

ProsperityStuff Vintage Sheet Quilt with Shirt-Fabric triangles

The back is a nondescript, non-vintage cotton sheet. (Actually, I found TWO king-size sheet sets on clearance at Wal-Mart: the good kind, 100% cotton, 300 count, solid colors, $11.00 for each set! Again, that's my kind of deal!) And, the quilting is not perfect, but I'm getting better at it.

ProsperityStuff solid sheet for quilt back

Up close, the "plain" blocks actually have a tiny tone-on-tone print. I think this makes the quilt a little more interesting, without making it overly busy.  

ProsperityStuff Quilt detail - shirt fabric on vintage sheet

Another angle-view of the finished quilt, which turned out to be 53" x 63".

ProsperityStuff Shirts and Sheets Quilt

And, I think this quilt will live for a while on the cedar chest my grandfather made for me ...

ProsperityStuff Vintage Sheet Quilt on Cedar Chest

Reading quilt blogs and seeing other people's quilt-process pictures is something that's helped me improve my quilting skills tremendously. It's also something that gives me continual inspiration for what's next on my quilting project-list.

This week's "Finish it up Friday" at CrazyMomQuilts is a great place to see what some other quilters have been working on. CrazyMomQuilts is one of my all-time favorite quilt blogs, and I'm linking this post there, and looking forward to catching some more inspiration.

4 comments:

  1. The inspiration in blogland is great, isn't it?!? This came out beautifully, Susie!

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  2. Love. Love. Love.

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  3. Funny, my husband and I were given the same sheets as a wedding gift 30+ years ago, and I still have them in the linen cabinet. I love what you've done with yours - might have to dig them out!

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  4. Hi, just my thought....I believe that is a button foot, not a darning foot. You have also used the button foot in place of a darning foot for stippling, it's creative use of a presser foot that most people overlook. Congrat! :)

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