Sunday, September 11, 2011

Vintage Baby!

I have an on again/off again relationship with Vintage Sheets. I love the way finished products look, but they're kind of a pain to work with. I mean, first of all, you have to find the dang things. Not always easy. And then once you find them, you have to prewash and sometimes pretreat (I never prewash my quilting fabrics, unless it's a red, and sometimes not even then. BTW, Jeni has a great article on her blog about the search and care of vintage sheets.) Then there's the cutting around the worn or stained parts (or the parts that some child of the 70's took magic marker to and drew around the outside of all the flowers.) I've even thought about giving up vintage sheets all together. But then, I'll have a great day thrifting and find not one but two great sheets, or have a lovely morning stitching and put the final binding stitches in this quilt during the Ravens/Steelers game today, and I'm back in love (or at least heavy like!)

I've wanted to do an over sized log cabin style baby quilt in vintage sheets for a while now. The only thing that was stopping me is the sheets. Unlike my "quilt" fabrics, I store the vintage sheets separately, and the sheets are not usually in tidy little fat quarters or even yardage. Most often, I need to cut usable chunks out of my sheets before I can begin. Therefore, my tidy studio gets destroyed when I work with the sheets. I kind of have to psych myself up to work them.

Despite the challenges of vintage sheets, I'm thrilled with the way this turned out. I had no real plan for fabrics at the start ~ just grabbed whatever color I liked best at the time. For quilting, I did a simple 3" cross hatch. And for the first time in forever, I actually marked the quilting lines. I was using a new marking pen for this one, and got half way through when I realized it was an air soluble marker, not water soluble! (I kept thinking, I already marked that section ~ where did it go?) It became a bit of a game, to see if I could get it quilted before all the lines disappeared. And, being a bit competitive, I'm happy to announce, "My Win!" (that's what 3-4 year old Katie would say when we'd play board games, sweetie girl!)

And now that I have all my vintagey goodness still out, what else should I make before I banish them to the cupboard again? Ideas?

Oh, and by the way Way to Go Ravens!!

14 comments:

Michelle said...

I love the way your quilt shows off all of the different prints. The second one in from the edge is the same as the sheets I had for most of my childhood, so that one always jumps out at me.

Deborah in Atlanta said...

Wow - you did a wonderful job. I just love those vintage sheets from my childhood. Why don't you make a small Linus quilt - one the toddler can drag along on the floor behind him/her?

Laura said...

Love it! All those flowers look great together. I love the green lattice one.

Pillows?
Another one of these?

Unknown said...

I love how bright all the colors are! Great job!

Kathleen said...

Heather, I love it! So colorful. Last weekend we went out to Indiana, PA to see Jocelyn and she had some really pretty vintage sheets on her bed and I was telling about you collecting them! :) You did a great job!

Becky said...

Thats so lovely.I adore the colors.

Unknown said...

I really love this. Might have to make myself one. Ugh. You just added to my UFO list, lady...

Skooks said...

I agree, they're not always the easiest things to work with, but they are so fun and colorful and wonderful when they're all mashed together. I LOVE the way this quilt turned out. Still waiting for the rest of my blocks from Bee Vintage so I can start assembling a quilt top with them.

Sheetal said...

this is so great Heather! how about some improv pieced quilt blocks to use up all the odd shaped pieces? then you could square up the sheets and store them all pretty too!

craftytammie said...

This looks great! I have been trying to make myself cut strips, squares, and FQ every time I have the sheets out.

pinsandneedles said...

Love the look of vintage sheets but are mighty hard to find in 'my neck of the woods.' Fabulous job in coordinating these fabrics!

Anonymous said...

Amazing quilt! I have some vintage sheets and have saved them thinking I might use them one day -now I know what to do with them! xo, Nan

beth said...

Love this quilt! You done GOOD!

~Damita's Pretty Wrap~ said...

That's sooo so pretty I just love all the pretty colors from the vintage fabric! :)