The first moment I saw a vintage sheet quilt years ago, I knew I had to make one! The pastel colors mixed with the jewel tones… I can’t even handle it. So a few years ago, I started collecting vintage sheets from sales that I saw on Instagram, Etsy and eBay. I bought some full sheets for the back and binding by mostly just fat quarter cuts of sheets that people had split up.
Once I felt like I had enough, I decided on just doing 4″ squares so I could still see as much of the design as possible. I cut the squares and finished the top back in 2014… here we are in 2016, slowest quilt ever haha.
Even if it took two years, I’m done and I love it! It’s larger than a twin but smaller than a full. The perfect size in my opinion. I didn’t have any rhyme or reason to where I placed the squares. Then I learned that random is sometimes harder because I didn’t want any two of the same pattern touching… so that took some maneuvering.
I used very thin cotton batting because, it’s Texas y’all… it doesn’t get that cold here. Speaking of Texas, I love the way the quilt looks in this field behind our house… there is literally a woman walking a cow in the background if you look really closely haha!
I’m a terrible machine quilter because I’m not a big perfectionist and when I start running out of steam or get bored I just hurry through… so don’t look too closely at the top quilting on this. I did every other row right down the center, and I love the way that turned out too. A little different than my stitch in the ditch method. I used a full sheet for the back so I didn’t have to worry about the seams. And speaking of not being a perfectionist, I machine quilted my binding on too. This was actually the only “non-sheet” fabric on the quilt. I found it at Walmart of all places but it has a funky 70’s vibe and dark colors so I thought it would outline it perfectly.
Overall, this quilt was super simple to make and I should have finished it years ago (literally). I barely had the last stitch in it and the boys were dragging it to the couch :) We all fight over THIS ONE so now we have two to argue over haha. Also… big shout out to my husband who stood in a field holding up a pastel quilt while cars drove by during 5:00 traffic, he’s a keeper.
This quilt is beautiful Taylor, it looks perfect to me and I love the contrast bias edging. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your creativity and ideas. Your designs are very encouraging for people like me who struggle to put two matching colors together and it shows that your practical approach results in a beautiful quilt that will be a precious keepsake. Its a great gift to be able to give someone else the confidence to create and finish something themselves. Thank you.
What kind of seam allowance do you use for the 4 inch blocks? Every time I use a square my blocks don’t tend to meet up with the next rows making my squares off centered. Any help would be appreciated. A fellow Texan.
Hi Becky,
I am not sure what size seam allowance Taylor uses but the typical one is 1/4″. Check to see if your sewing machine has a quarter inch foot or a line on the foot to follow. If it doesn’t you can carefully measure and apply a piece of painters tape to your sewing machine bed exactly a quarter inch from where the needle hold is and follow that. I’ve done all of the above!
Making sure that you start with squares that are all the same size and using a consistent seam allowance should solve your problem. Have you ever looked at vintage quilts though? The seams often don’t match perfectly and that is part of the charm of a handmade quilt. Do the best you can and embrace the human imperfections that exist with hand crafted items! Good luck!
OMG This quilt is exactly what I had pictured making. I have two from my Great Grandmother….I’m 70…so they’ve been around for quite a while and 1 is still being used. I’m going to try to fix the other one, which is falling apart. One of them looks like the one you have done ….I hope my first attempt turns out as well. Gotta clean my closets…Thank you for sharing
Great idea!
I like the way the blocks are somehow emphasized by doing your quilting line right through the center of the block instead of using “stitch in the ditch” (which is one of my go-to quilting methods also).
I just “sandwiched” my “Trip Around the World” quilt and was dreading doing the quilting with my 3″ blocks and huge quilt. (Don’t have the measurements at hand, but it hands nearly 10 inches off each side of my queen size bed!)
I’m going to use your method since I pieced the back with large blocks and the quilting isn’t going to matter to the back anyway.
Nice work! And “kudos” to your “keeper”! It’s hard enough to get my “Cowboy” to hold stuff up for me in the living room!