A finish...

I made a simple vintage sheet quilt for the medical room bed at school.  I just cannot bear those scratchy grey blankets and cannot imagine being a wee sick kiddo having to cover up with one of those.  So... soft vintage sheets in 4 " squares is the answer. Totally random placement of prints as I grabbed and stitched without a whole lot of planning.   It is cheerful enough in yellows and greens but, hey, its made of old sheets so it is not going to be a catastrophe if something happens in the sick room.  And I don't have to say anything more because I am sure you know what I am talking about.  I bound it in a white and green vintage sheet.  It worked out perfectly!  It is backed in a lovely soft solid yellow sheet that is soft but still substantial enough that it will hold up.  In the spirit of recycling, I stitched together a couple of big chunks of leftover batting for the insides.  The quilt is quilted simply,  1/4" on just one side of each seam, with Aurifil 50 wt in white to create a grid.  You can see it quite well on the back down below.  Easy peasy.  And happily waiting to comfort sick kiddos when school starts up as it is already on the medical room bed at school.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday.

Vintage sheets anyone?

I convinced Husband I needed a thrift store fix today.  He made me a deal.  He would be my thrift store buddy if I would give him one hour of my time to help him trim the grass around our pond, trim the grass on the pond's three little islands and help him dredge the pond weeds a bit from the bottom.  I agreed in a heartbeat.  Hmmm.  Who got the better deal?

I snagged some great vintage sheets.  We even stopped at a garage sale.  I found a set of ... get this... vintage sheet napkins!  Ha!  Nicely hemmed, large dinner napkins.  I have not decided if I will use them as napkins or fabric.

My hand zeroed in on a sweet little Johnson Brothers egg cup.  99 cents! And I could not resist the package of Viceroy Fruit Jar rings.  The package is in perfect condition and it was in a bag of new canning jar rings for $1.99.  Total deal!

And this was the week for fabric.  I found several metres of really great quilting cotton.  I have not even remembered to take pictures of it all.  The blue print is really quite lovely and I think there is about 2.5 metres.  The roses on cream is decor weight and may just become a whole pile of Jane Market Bags.  Just maybe.

Oh... the pond.  Let's just say we both got extremely muddy and Husband had to take off his boots and go for quite the deep wading experience!  And the pond looks fabulous.

Happy weekend!  Linking up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds.

Just a little work in progress...

 I had a bag of 4" vintage sheet squares all nicely cut.  These were leftovers from daughter's picnic quilt made last summer.  I have been thinking that I needed to do something about the very dismal state of my school medical room.  It is enough to make a small child feel sicker to have to rest in there before being picked up when sick.  It is so completely lacking in anything that resembles a comfy place.  I need to make a not too fancy, not too big quilt that will stand up to frequent washings and not break my heart if someone is sick on it.  Right now we have the scratchiest and stiffest blankets known to mankind,  So, I am going to throw together these nicely cut little squares, use up a bunch of batting bits and create something that will work better and look nicer than the nasty, scratchy blankets.

I started already.  I think it will go pretty fast.  It is just squares in strips.  No biggie.  When I get tired of making cross string blocks, I make a strip of these babies.

I went from no works in progress to two in less than a week.  Hmph.  How does that happen?????

Have a lovely Tuesday!  Check out the Get Aquainted Blog Hops today!

May 29

    Heidi from Fabric Mutt

    Amy from Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

    
May 31
    Jodi from Tickle and Hide

    Jennie from Porch Swing Quilts

Vintage sheet love...

I have a friend who wants to try making a quilt with her daughter.  They haven't done anything like this before and I was asked for some advice.  It is a little tricky to give all the information about everything, even where to buy fabric and what to look for when they haven't done anything like this before.  Then I had a bit of a brainwave and suggested that she make her first quilt with some vintage sheets.  It is a win win all around.  Firstly, I can share which means no cost.  Secondly, no pressure, because the vintage sheets are cheap and in this case free!  They can figure out if this is something they like to do and then spend the money on quilting cotton for the next try. 

I put together a stack of vintage sheets chunks last evening.  I say chunks because they are not fat quarters, more like half yards.  I found a quilting book that I got at the estate sale last fall, with a good basic instruction section too and added that to the pile.  I think they will have some fun!  They are going to make the top and then ask for the next step.  I so hope they have fun!

Have a super rest of your day!

Vintage Sheet Blog Feature!

I am really tickled that my wee vintage sheet baby bonnet is being featured on the All Things Vintage Sheet Blog right this very minute!  You can see I have already popped the button up on the side bar!  The Vintage Sheet blog has been having a theme week with baby stuff made from vintage sheets so I submitted my cutey patootey bonnet and there it is... on the blog!!!!

Here is a link to my original blog post of just the other day...  if you interested in the tutorial that I followed and my changes.

I am going to link up with Sew Modern Monday  and tomorrow with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story!  Check out the other great finishes and fun projects!!!!

Flea Market Finds!

The house is overflowing with flea market finds this week.  Mum came for a visit and brought me a load of snazzy fun treats.  From one of my quilting aunties came a giant bag of sheets!  Yep, the very best kind because they came from a family member's linen cupboard and therefore are FREE!!! (Check this post for the cute vintage sheet baby bonnet that I made yesterday!) Aunty also sent me some heavy striped denim-y fabric that is screaming to be a bag or two!

I also found the cutest little Raggedy Ann doll at the thrift store this morning in the 10 cent basket!!!!  She stands a mere 7" tall and is cute, cute, cute!

I also scored this lovely wooden box that is just the right size for storing my favourite fat quarters!  How useful!!!!

Mum found this gorgeous milk glass vase/pot for me!  Very lovely!!! Thanks Mum!

So many treasures, I will have to spread this out over the next few weeks!

Have a lovely rest of your weekend.  I have just finished canning green beans and did not, blow up the house with the pressure cooker!  Success!!!

I will link up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds and hopefully, with Apron Thrift Girl if she has Thrift Share Monday!  Check out all the other finds as it is just so interesting!

FLEA MARKET FINDS

Vintage Sheet Baby Bonnet!!!

Oh my goodness!  I had some fun today.  I had an idea that vintage sheets would make LOVELY baby bonnets!  Mum and I were out thrifting this morning and we searched in all the old patterns for a baby bonnet pattern but we had no luck! I had done a bit of googling for a tutorial and found this one.  With a few modifications, SUCCESS!  I think it is so darned cute.  Husband thinks I have lost my mind.  I did not have a baby handy to test drive this super soft and sweet bonnet but hopefully you get the idea.

Okay, so what did I modify?  First of all, I did not think that the bonnet needed any interfacing.  The ties are too long so I shortened them about 4 inches.  I did not use bias tape to make a sleeve for the ribbon, rather I tucked under 1/4" of the last unfinished edges of the bonnet and pressed.  Then I edge stitched about an inch in length right on the edge of this turned under bit.  This is so that once the ribbon is inserted, no icky raw edges hang out. I then stitched the edge of the bonnet across, leaving the aforementioned 2 small openings for the ribbon.  And then made a second line of stitching, 3/4" from the edge to make a housing for the ribbon.  This worked really nicely, leaving the bonnet super soft for baby.  I had some really lovely striped grosgrain ribbon for the back of the bonnet but you could also make another vintage sheets tie to put in there, maybe a contrasting colour.

I used a bit of solid pink from a vintage sheet border for the ruffle on the bonnet.  Cute or what? And it did not take long to make at all!!!!!  Now we just need to find a baby for it!

Vintage Sheets 101...

I have a thing for vintage sheets.  Partly this stems from my love of thrift stores and I blame this on my mother.  Maybe my grandmother.  Gramma used to volunteer at her local Hospital Auxilary Thrift Shop and was always unearthing treasures for us.  My Mum is the ultimate recycler so I guess this all comes honestly.  Last summer I started the whole vintage sheet thing as a cheap alternative to quilting cotton because I really wanted to practice free motion quilting without the worry of wrecking a quilt made from expensive fabric.  I used a combination of sheets and some coordinating prints and used Elizabeth Hartman's Clothesline quilt tutorial for this happy quilt.

When shopping for vintage sheets there are some things to remember.  Firstly, look for sheets in good shape without too much fading.  I stick to flat sheets as much as possible.  Fitted sheets are often quite worn, especially in the centre and are prone to pilling of fabric.  Ick.  Fitted sheets can also be stained.  Double ick.  So my rule of thumb is that unless a fitted sheet is in really like- new shape, I don't even look at them.  Pillow cases can be a good bet but there are some pitfalls.  They can smell.  Yep.  Think about it.  Lots of sweaty heads may have slept on them.  This may sound strange but if a pillowcase appeals to me because of the print, I always do the sniff test.  I will only buy a stinky pillowcase if it is an unusual or sought after print.  I have found some success in getting rid of the stinky pillowcase smell by laundering them with about 1/2 cup of plain white vinegar.  Hanging outside on the clothesline after the vinegar treatment will also help.

The whole laundry thing is the very first thing I do with any vintage sheet purchases.  They go straight to the laundry room for a good wash.  I do this before I even take a picture for the blog.

Of course vintage sheets have a lot of fabric.  Cutting them down to fat quarter size or a more manageable size is a good idea but I only do this as I use them.  I have also found whole vintage sheets to make great quilt backs.  You can find 100% cotton vintage sheets and they can be really lovely as a quilt back.  Check out my string quilt.  I used a sheet for the back.  Pure happiness.

I like to keep the border prints from sheets too.  First of all, they often have some very pretty trim.  Bonus.  Secondly, the print is often tighter and denser in a border of a sheet and that makes a really pretty binding on a vintage sheet quilt.  NICE!

Vintage sheets are readily available.  You can afford to be picky when selecting sheets or pillowcases for your stash.  Locally, I can find sheets for $2 to $6 depending on the thrift store.  Pillowcases are anywhere from $0.50 to $1.99 depending on the store and of course, condition.

Most vintage sheets are 50/50 polycotton or percale.  As a result, they do not act like a quilting cotton when pressed.  The voice of experience also reminds you to use a lower heat setting on your iron because of the polyester component in the sheet fabric.  Yep.  You can get a little melty with your iron.  The blocks also do not press like cotton so you have to be okay with a block that may appear a little floppy.  When all is finished and quilted, a vintage sheet quilt will look lovely and soft and ready to be snuggled under.

Some great vintage sheet blogs...  Jen's In Colour Order.  Not only does Jen have some great tips for using vintage sheets but she has an Etsy shop where she sells vintage sheet fat quarters and stuff.  Jen has a great blog post on how to handle and cut up a vintage sheet to make it usable.  There is also the  The Vintage Sheet Blog.

So there you have it!   Have fun and experiment!

Sunday Stash and Flea Market Finds

I just had to show off the purple irises and yellow roses currently in bloom.  Just a few flowers on the roses.  And the irises are to die for.  

Well... it is really one in the same because this week's stash building was all in the vintage sheet and pillowcase category.  I found some great pillow cases and a couple of matching sheets.  I was tickled!  I hit some new to me thrift stores and scored big time.  Including, of course, the pillow case made with FLEA MARKET FANCY!!!!!  I took the pictures today on the barn loft ladder just for fun.  The blue vintage sheet quilt is now sandwiched and ready to quilt.  That will be tomorrow's project.  Summer holidays does a lot for my quilting productivity!!!

I have already used some of the pillow cases before I even took a picture.  And I am linking up with not only Sophie's Flea Market Finds but I am also linking up with the Bloggers' Gardening Tour!  Check out other finds and other gardens in bloom!

FLEA MARKET FINDS                           

Happy Monday!

Just a few white roses...

Riel, who blogs at the Q and the U, has her HUGE I spy quilt featured at Modern Day Quilts!  Very exciting and if you have not checked out Riel's blog, you should!  She just finished another vintage sheet quilt.  She caught the bug.

I read an interesting tip somewhere in blogland that adding some plain old white vinegar to the wash water when washing vintage sheets and pillowcases helps freshen them up.   I gave it a whirl and found it really did freshen the pillowcases which can sometimes be a little less than fresh.  It made a big difference.  I often avoid vintage pillowcases unless they are really in good shape because they can be very well used.  The vinegar is the solution.

One more day left to enter my giveaway for the half metre cuts of Sandi Henderson fabric. Check it out!!!

Thrifting Sunday and a new quilt start...

With my nasty summer cold, I was not up to my super shopping self yesterday and did not find too much at the thrift stores.  I did however, add, yet again, to my ever growing pile of vintage sheets.  Spending a grand sum of $1.25 for 2 pillowcases in purples.  I also picked up 2 sheets and a pillowcase at another thrift store for cheap.  And if you noticed, one of the sheets is still in its original package.  With our super sleuthing, Husband and I would date that sheet to the mid 1970s.

I did start a new quilt.  I faithfully worked on my to do list for the Finish Up challenge too.  I made 6 scrappy paper pieced string blocks.  I calculated I need 80 blocks in total and I am almost half way.  Erg!  But the new quilt is just fun.  Vintage sheets in the blue and purple family.  Not using a pattern.  I am going to randomly place 8.5" star blocks with 8.5" squares of sheets.  I think it will look GREAT!  Today I made the 14 little star blocks. I used my handy dandy flying geese quilt in a day ruler for perfect points!  Sounds like a advertisement!  But it works!

And you know your quilting obsession is catching when Daughter's special someone gets excited when he spies a quilt shop on their long weekend camping trip and tries to get Daughter to pose in front of the shop to show me.  Too funny!!!!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway.  I will pick a winner on Tuesday evening.  So exciting!

I will be linking up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds.  Check out all the other lovely finds....

Garage sale and thrift store booty

Well, Mum was up for Daughter's graduation and brought me a few boxes of her recent finds for me.  Some LOVELY vintage pillow cases.  Love them.  Totally required for my vintage sheet work in progress.  The green butterfly pillow cases will really help round out the colours.  Then the yellow rose sheets.  Totally gorgeous and not faded.  I was kicking my heels in delight when I pulled those out of the box.  And check out the crocheted squares.  I am getting so many of this type of thing that I am really needing an inspiration.

Mum also brought me several lengths of quilting cotton that she has picked up here and there at garage sales and so on for CHEAP!  Thanks Mum!!!!  There was also a box full of scraps and bits and pieces that she bought for $1 from a lady who used to own a quilt shop.  Lots of hexies ready to go and all sorts of other scraps.  It will be fun to go through the whole mess of it.

Happy Wednesday and happy game day for those of you who are watching hockey!

Vintage sheets!

I started working on the sparkling cider vintage sheet quilt.  Jen made one of these just before Christmas and I thought it was a really lovely pattern and what's more, it looks beautiful when made from vintage sheets.  I ordered the pattern.  I ordered the flying geese template ruler.  I cut sheets into fat quarters yesterday and today cut fat quarters into all sorts of pieces to start making the blocks.  Phew!

Here is the thing when using vintage sheets.  Because they are often in similar colour families and often contain a lot of white, you have to be mindful when selecting the sheets to use with this quilt.  I think that the contrast needs to be there as much as possible to make the stars pop.  You wouldn't want to lose the impact of the stars by having the different sheets too similar.  This all made my cutting up the fat quarters that much more interesting.

The other thing you need to know when using vintage sheets is they are soft and usually thinner than quilting cottons.  This makes a difference when pressing and also taking pictures.  The block above looks a little floopy.  It is not modelling it's perfect points well enough!

Two new favourite notions.  A hera marker!  Fabulous!  Where has this been all my quilting life?  Perfect for marking stitching lines on fabric.  And this handy dandy little flying geese template is just too cool for words.  Must be tried to be believed and all those other info-mercial lines!

And one last picture.  I decided to de-fuzz my sewing machine before I started this project.  I haven't done it for a little while because I just had my machine serviced about 2 months ago.  Oops.  I need to remind myself to clean it out after each quilt.  Will you look at all that fuzz-goop-yuck!?

*And the contrast sheet to the wild pink vintage sheet above is a sheet that dates to the early 80s.  I know this because it was a wedding present.  When does a sheet become vintage? I had actually passed that sheet on to Mum to transform it into a rag rug but she brought it back to me when I started this quilting with sheets thing.  It works well as a background contrast but is it really vintage?  Who cares.  Happy Sunday!

Quilt that I want to make list....

Angela over at Cut to Pieces has a giveaway right now.  I don't often link up or talk about giveaways on other blogs here because... well, I just don't.  I do enter a lot of giveaways but I have yet to win anything!  I did have luck with some scratch tickets that Husband gave me and I think we won a grand total of $8.   Woo hoo!  I would, of course, love to win something quilty and have great faith that it will, one day, be my turn!  The reason I am mentioning Angela's blog, however, is because she asks those entering the giveaway to talk about a quilt that they have seen on someone's blog that they might like to make.  I am always getting great ideas from other people's blogs.  The quilt that I have on my current list of must make is a quilt I saw over at Jeni's blog, In Colour Order last December. This link will take you right to it.  It just speaks to me.  One of the reasons is that it is made of vintage sheets.  Big piles of them.  I have big piles of vintage sheets.    And I really like the pattern.  In fact, it should be coming in the mail any day now, because I ordered it.  Sparkling Cider, by All Washed Up Quilts.

And Riel at the Q and the U received the package I sent her with DS Quilts Collection fabric that I picked up for her in Bellingham.  The package did not go via Antarctica it seems, although I was worried about it.  The tracking information had it received at our local post office and nothing else.  It seemed as though it may have disappeared into the great Canada Post vortex but it did find Riel's house, despite my reservations, concerns and worries!

thrift store stuff...

After my great score at the by the pound fabric sale, I found some zowie vintage sheets at the thrift store.  $1.50 each and in awesome shape.  I have quite a stack of vintage sheets including a striped bright pink one so I really must start thinking about a quilt using them.

But my really fantastic flea market find was really a Craigslist purchase from about a year and a bit ago.  We bought a lot of hardwood flooring from a guy for under $2 a square foot.  Amazing!!!!  And then we stored it in a big pile in the house until we were ready and Husband was ready just these last few weeks.  He installed it in the kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway and master bedroom.  I am simply over the moon with this lovely cherry hardwood.  Here it is, complete with kitty cat paw prints and Webster.  .

And I am going to link up with Sophie's flea market finds.  Check it out!