Vintage Sheet Quilt (top) #5

 

I started working on this vintage sheet quilt  in September.  Originally it was throw sized, but after thinking about it for a few more months, I came to the conclusion that we really don't need any more throw size quilts - especially in ultra vibrant colors that really don't match the decor of the main living areas of our home. So, I added 6 more rows and now it is large enough to work as a bed quilt - an extra wide twin.   I made my oldest daughter a vintage sheet quilt for her bedroom a couple of years ago.  Since then, I have added a lot more prints to my collection that would look fabulous in her room.  When this new one is finished, she can alternate it with the original one in her bedroom for a little variety.

I set out to make a "Plus" quilt like many I have seen on Flickr, where all of the prints fit together like pieces in a puzzle.  But, when I laid the quilt top out like that, the large prints blended together and it looked like a colorful mess.  I opted instead to add one degree of separation between fabrics with Kona Ash (still a favorite) as a buffer. 

I know - It is very similar to the queen size quilt I made last spring.  Might have something to do with the neutral I keep choosing over and over again. Next time I play with vintage sheets, I'll try to mix it up with something other than Ash. Then again, maybe not. Why mess with a good thing?

Vintage Sheet Quilt Progress

First of all, can I just say how happy I am that today is March 1st?  The sun is shining and I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I've been inching along with my latest vintage sheet quilt.  The top would probably be finished, if it weren't for the fact that I ran out of Kona Ash.  I had a 50% off coupon, so I headed to Joann's to stock up and they were completely sold out. Bummer.  I ended up buying some on Etsy and now I am just waiting for the package to come.  The hard thing about buying online is you miss out on instant gratification.  But, I sure do like the shopping hours. 

I wanted to show you the progress I've made, but trying to find a place to display a queen sized quilt proved difficult.  First I tried the bed...

Next I draped it from the china cabinet in the living room...

Finally, I just hung it from a wall in my sewing room...

(the pattern is one I sketched up a few months ago - you can see it here)

I still need to add the top and bottom rows.  By the time it is finished, it will have outgrown the wall. I am already feeling a little intimidated just thinking about the effort the actual quilting will require.

We are in the process of refinishing furniture for our master bedroom. Everything will be white. I plan on having all white linens as well - comforter, bed skirt etc. To mix it up a bit, my goal is to make a different quilt for each season, and this vintage sheet quilt is what I have in mind for spring.  After the cold, gray winter, I am ready for color.  Flowers too. 

The question is, can I get it all done (quilt & furniture) by the time Spring officially arrives?

Vintage Inspired Bedroom Make-Over

My daughter just celebrated her 8th birthday. This year I wanted to do something extra special for her, so I came up with the idea of a surprise bedroom make-over. She has been wanting us to paint it a light blue for a while, and this seemed like the perfect way to get motivated.


On her birthday she went to school with her bedroom looking like this...


And came home to this...


I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get it all done in the 7 1/2 hour time frame, but I had help. My mother in law watched my 2 youngest while I painted, and my mom picked up my daughter and oldest son after school and took them out for ice cream to give me a little more time.


Everything in the room is vintage, from the up-cycled furniture that I painted a while back, to the linens.


I based the decorating scheme around the vintage sheet quilt I first started last summer (my daughter fell in love with it at the time). I finally finished quilting and binding it the weekend before her birthday. The bed skirt was made from a green gingham vintage sheet.


We brought in the desk that we had used as a changing table in my youngest daughter's room. I found an old chair at the thrift store for $5 and painted it Green Apple and then reupholstered with a vintage sheet.


For wall art, thrifted embroidery hoops with the vintage sheet fabric used in the quilt.


Can you tell that this particular sheet is my favorite? last year, I found a pillowcase of this pattern at a thrift store and used it in the quilt. When recently I found a brand new (still in original package from the 60's or 70's) twin flat sheet on eBay, I was so excited!



I haven't yet made a sham, so for now her bed is adorned with never used before vintage pillow cases.


My talented mother-in-law crocheted this super sweet pillow for her after I fell in love with these on the Sew Mama Sew blog.



I still need to make curtain panels out of this sheet, just didn't quite get it all done it time.


The BIG REVEAL...


She LOVED it!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

For Blogger's Quilt Festival,  I've decided to share the vintage sheet quilt I finished in April (sorry for the repetition if you read my earlier post about this quilt). This quilt is the product of two years of diligently searching for and collecting beautiful, vibrant linens from yester-year. This is my 3rd vintage sheet quilt (first here, second here).  Since this one was for my bedroom, I was very discriminating - only my favorite sheets made the final cut. Some of them are the same ones my sweet grandmother used in her home (blues and greens) and I think of her when I see them.

I started working on it last fall and it was on my sewing table for quite a while. At queen size, it is the largest quilt I have made. Machine quilting it on my domestic machine was a bit challenging - I am sure my lines are a little more wonky than straight in places, but I was wrestling with mountains of fabric and bulk (or so it seemed). The design is one I sketched up one day. I used Kona Ash for the solid.

It has been on my bed for almost 2 months, and it still makes me happy.

Vintage Sheet Quilt in Blues (greens & purples too)

I told myself I couldn't start a new quilt until I finished this one.  So, my cool toned vintage sheet quilt is finally done.

Here is the front...

And the back, which I have to say is my favorite side...

When I was growing up, we would often go visit my grandparents in Idaho.  Two of the guest bedrooms in their home were called the "Green Room" and & "Blue Room", and they were filled with the "retro" (although not so retro at the time) floral linens from the 70's. Those rooms looked the exact same my whole life - their generation was not obsessed with re-decorating the way ours seems to be. This quilt reminds me of those rooms & more particularly of my grandmother, Grace.

And, because I am entranced with the sky of late, I thought I would share a little piece of yesterday with you...

Vintage Sheet Quilt - Blues

I didn't mean to be away from my blog for so long, I just haven't had a lot to post about. No pretty pictures to share, and I wouldn't know how to post without something visual to distract from my crazy ramblings. But, I did finally manage to snap out of my lazy funk (for a bit) and pieced a new vintage sheet quilt using only my blue, green and purple inventory. So in honor of the winter blues, a blues quilt.


For the first time ever, I've decided to do something fancy with the back of one of my quilts. I think I'm liking it better than the front. Here's a wrinkly little peek...

Hope to have it quilted soon, but don't hold your breath. My kids are off track for 3 weeks (year round school). Ay Carumba!
*Also been doing more reading. Read Hunger Games & Catching Fire. Couldn't stop thinking about them, so I read a few others to get them off my brain, including one on the Readers Choice table at the library called Jane Austen Ruined My Life. I wanted to like it, but in the end it was disappointing at best. Such a wimpy heroine - but then again, if I'm comparing characters to Katniss and Peeta, they all will seem like whiners. Next up... The Book Thief. If you have any suggestions, send them my way.

Couple-O-Vintage Sheet Quilts

It has been a while since I have shared a project or two...or anything for that matter.  My little break ended up being a bit longer than I thought it would be and honestly it has been nice.  But, every once in a while, I still find myself wanting to share, so this morning I thought I would sit down, while my kids are still sleeping, and do just that.

I finished the vintage plus quilt not too long ago and it is my favorite of all the vintage sheet quilts I've made. So pretty, I  will definitely need to make another, because this one sold.  The sooner, the better, because now that it is gone I am going through withdrawal.

Someone pinned an image of it on Pinterest, where a sweet girl named Cori saw it and fell in love - a kindred spirit for sure. She traced it back to my blog and contacted me and asked if I could make her one. Since I can be a little slow in the quilting department, I offered to sell this one, knowing I have the supplies to reproduce it for myself later on, at my own leisurely pace.

And, since Cori is expecting her first baby (a girl) in a few months, this little patchwork vintage sheet baby quilt is for her as well.

Vintage sheets make the softest baby quilts ever.

A Rosy Day

I have vintage linen on my brain. I’ve seen a few gorgeous quilts of late made from vintage sheets and I just want to make one. It’s like an itch that just won’t go away. So today I started cutting squares…
This one will be a vintage ROSE quilt. I have been hoarding a pair of pink rose pillowcases that I inherited from my paternal grandmother. And this week my mom gave me a yellow rose pillowcase that belonged to her mom (my maternal grandmother). The others (blue & multi) are a couple of rose sheets I found at the thrift store recently.
I still want to do another vintage sheet quilt that is brighter and more random. Here are a few sheets I have found this week for that one . . .
Found the above two in my mom's linen closet. My mother in-law is going to see what she can find.
This one I found at a thrift store yesterday. I LOVE the orange!

Another thrifted beauty - so bright & colorful.

I also found a whole slew of nearly new goods from the Simply Shabby line by Rachel Ashwell. Maybe after I get the vintage sheets out of my system, I'll make a Simply Shabby quilt.