Vintage Sheet Baby Quilt Tutorial

happy wednesday!  i'd like you to meet heather!  she is so sweet and funny and i'm thrilled to call her my friend!  she's the president of the baltimore modern quilt guild too!

Hi All! I'm Heather from quilt.cook.keep. I'm so excited that Tammie invited me to share this baby quilt tutorial with you. Tammie and I met almost two years ago via flickr, when I was hosting the Bee Vintage quilting bee. Since then, we've kept in touch via our blogs and flickr.

5 things I love:

Holding "my" babies at South East Early Head Start (I volunteer twice a week)  you can read about it here and here

Dark Chocolate

Glee

Thrift store finds

Those final two minutes on the treadmill

Since Tammie & I share a love of vintage sheets, I decided my "week of love" project should be made from them.

I made up this sweet little heart quilt for you. It's super simple, and can be made in an afternoon. Make one up for a little sweetheart in your life!

What you'll need:


In blue vintage sheet fabric** (5) 6" squares and (6) 5.5" squares (I used 3 different blues)
In yellow vintage sheet fabric** (5) 6" squares and (20) 5.5" squares (I used 7 different yellows)


For borders: (2) 3.5" x 30.5" and (2) 3.5" x 36.5" of blue VS (a different blue than above)


For binding: approximately 160" double fold binding (I cut my binding strips at 2.25") of blue VS (same as border)


Batting and Backing: pieces: 42" x 42"


**Want to play with vintage sheets, but don't have any, or not enough variety? I have kits available in my Etsy store! See below for a special offer for craftytammie followers!

All right, let's get started!


First we'll make half square triangles. We're making them a tad over sized, so we can trim to the correct size. This allows for a little wiggle room (meaning we don't have to be perfect!) Take your 5 blue and 5 yellow 6" squares and make pairs of one yellow, one blue. Put these right sides together. Using a ruler and sharp pencil (I like mechanical pencils for this) draw a line down the diagonal of the wrong side of one of the paired fabrics. This line will be your sewing guide. At your sewing machine, sew a 1/4" seam on both sides of the drawn line. Cut the squares apart, on the drawn line. Press open (press towards the blue, or your darkest fabric) and trim to 5.5". Do this for all 5 pairs. We just make half square triangles!

Next arrange your squares as above, or use the diagram below.

(my weak attempt at drawing in photoshop!)

Now, we sew the blocks together to make the quilt top. I like to sew two columns together, then return those sewn pieces to my layout ~ mainly because I'm easily confused. Take the squares in column B and flip over to the squares in column A. Chain stitch these together, lay them back on your design space (wall, floor, where ever) and clip connecting threads. Then flip row D over to row C and sew. Repeat with F and E. Then sew the AB unit to the CD unit. Then sew ABCD unit to EF unit. You should now have 6 complete rows, numbered 1-6. You'll want to press the seams on your rows. If you like to press your seams open, go for it. Me, not so much. For ease of construction (to reduce bulk and get pretty matching corners) press the odd numbered rows in one direction, and the even numbered rows in the opposite direction. This will create lovely nested seams.


Sew the rows in similar fashion to the columns. Flip row1 over row 2, sew. Etc, etc. Press your seams again (your choice of direction!) and our top is almost finished!

Add the borders. Add the two shorter border to the sides. Press seams towards the outside. Then add the two side borders.


Almost done! Layer your quilt top, batting and backing. Baste. Quilt as desired. I did a simple cross hatch for the quilting. I used my longest ruler and an air dissolving type marker to mark the lines, then quilted on the drawn lines. Trim, bind and you have a precious little quilt, for a precious little "love" in your life. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via my blog.

So, about that special offer! I've wanted to open an Etsy store for ages, offering up Vintage Sheet yardage and quilt kits. Doing this tutorial for you was the incentive I needed. If you'd like to purchase a kit to make this quilt, please visit my Etsy store. As a special Thank You, all of craftytammie readers will receive free shipping on quilt kits. Just enter CraftyTammie for your discount at checkout.

Thanks for reading and hopefully checking out my shop! I'd also love it if you'd stop by my blog and say "hi" ~ you may see some other tutorials you like!

And a huge thanks to Tammie! She's put together a terrific week for us. Be sure to check out her giveaways and her other guest's blogs. Tammie, you're the best!

Here's wishing you lots of love this week and always!

Heather

thanks heather, for a fantastic tutorial!  this would be great in so many different fabric combos - but i am kind of partial to those vintage sheets!  so how about i give away a fat quarter bundle of blue and yellow vintage sheet fabrics?! 

giveaway is now closed

want them? enter to win:

1.  leave a comment!  do you sew with vintage sheets?

2.. be a follower of heather's blog quilt.cook.keep (and tell me you did)

3.. be a follower of craftytammie (and tell me you did)

giveaway closes at midnight valentine's day, and winner will be chosen by RNG and notified feb. 15th.  good luck!