Wednesday, July 24, 2013

His and Hers quilt finished


This quilt was so fun!  Pulling fabrics is the best part of quilting for me and I honestly enjoy it more if there is a slight challenge.  It's lovely to make a quilt with a whole matching range of fabric, but when you have to scrounge around in the scrap bin, then it gets interesting.  I knew when I started this quilt, I wanted to add to the shirt fabric, and decided to go with some florals.  I got lucky, the shirts came in great colors, so it was easy to find something to coordinate with them.  They were all 100% cotton.   Two of them however, had a very tight weave and were hard to get a needle through, especially when sewing on the binding.  If you decide to sew with thrifted shirts remember that in case you're going to hand quilt it.
I had no clear pattern when I started, but wanted something simple like a patchwork.  I mixed it up  by adding log cabin blocks to the corners and floral lattice in the center.
Then I trimmed up 4 cuffs and whip stitched them to the top as tabs for hanging (that way they are easy to remove if you want to use it as a quilt and not a wall hanging).  Even though the cuffs were different sizes, all I did was move the buttons so they all matched up.
I pieced together a solid scrap of Kona white, with leftover shirt fabric for the backing.
Here is the recipe:

 Cut 64, 3.5 inch squares from 5 thrifted men's long sleeved shirts (cutting instructions here) and about 4 fat quarters of floral fabric.  Sew your squares into 9 patch blocks.  Make 16 of them.  They should measure 9.5 inches each.

Make 4 log cabin blocks for the corners.  I started with a 3 inch center square and added strips in different widths, and then squared them up to 9.5 inches

Cut 2.5 inch lattice from floral fabric
see picture of quilt  front for layout
Finished size 40.5 x 50.5
Machine quilted 1/4 inch from seams, and inside the log cabin blocks.

Toodles

8 comments:

  1. Lynne, this is soooo pretty! I love it! Well done, girlie.

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  2. Lynne: this is gorgeous. Wow I just love how you put the colors together. The back is so neat! The cuff tab idea is so smart!

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  3. lots of great ideas coming together to make a seriously lovely quilt!!!!

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  4. Pretty, pretty, pretty, I want to make one, too!
    KATRIN W.

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  5. Uh! Oh, my! I love it!!! And thanks for the recipe! As you might remember, I have lots of shirts from making the quilt for my son's friend, (it's not finished, YET), and I have the collars and cuffs, etc., left over. The colors in yours are fabulous!

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  6. Absolutly stunning...just brilliant x

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  7. What a darling idea to use the cuffs! Clever you : ) The quilts look very nice too

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You guys are awesome! Thank you for the comments!