I can't believe that school is almost here! It's been a major struggle this year to keep up with orders and still hang with the kids and keep them busy. As they get older, each one starts a new sport or activity that becomes all-consuming. This summer, our main focus has been cheer. Every day is something! I have found time to squeeze in projects consistently...although they're not getting completed as quickly as I would like.
I am excited to share my most recent project, though! If you remember the cow and strawberry quilts, consider this a sister! My long-term customer, April, reached out to me about another grandchild who needed a beautiful quilt! A little back story- April gave me her and her husband's parent's clothes to use for quilts for their grandchildren. The bag contained men's button-down shirts, women's blouses, a pair of linen pants, and a few favorite dish towels. You would be amazed at how far one stack of clothes will go! So far, we've made FOUR baby quilts and 20 Christmas stockings! This sheep quilt has been the fourth baby quilt. Today, I'm sharing how I created it.
Supplies Used:
Sheep Quilt Pattern (re-designed): The Woolen Needle Counting Sheep Pattern (more on this below)
White, Pink, Grey, and Light Blue Scrap Fabric
Pink Gingham Cotton Fabric for borders and backing
Lace Binding
More about the pattern: I found this pattern online and it was a tad bigger than I needed! I was looking for a baby quilt, so I just sized it down. Instead of the recommended size and number of blocks, I decided to use 9" squares with a 4x4 layout. With a 4" border on each side, my finished quilt came out to be 44" x 44". April decided that she wanted to finish this quilt off with a lace binding.
The sheep for this quilt were cut from clothing. I had to be mindful about which shirts to choose for this because I knew I had to iron them! Some shirts do not need to be ironed. We decided on these:
Step One: First, I printed out the sheep templates from the pattern. I had to do a little resizing because I wanted my blocks to be a little bit smaller. This was fairly easy with my printer! Since there are three different sheep sizes, I traced out 5 each of two of the sheep and then 6 of the other. I also traced out 16 sheep heads and lots of little legs.
More about HeatnBond Lite: This is one of my favorite things to use and I do so daily! It's so effective and works for a variety of projects. You should also be tracing whatever you want to create backward. The sheep heads are symmetrical, so tracing my template upside down wasn't as crucial, but I did have to do this for the bodies of the sheep. One thing to remember- fuse the HeatnBond to the BACK of your fabric.
Step Two: Next, I cut out all of the sheep's bodies, heads, and legs. After cutting out my 9" background blocks, I folded each in half twice and ran my iron over to find the center point. I carefully aligned my sheep's body over the center. Next, I stuck the legs underneath the body at the bottom, and the head in various places around the body. Make sure that the color of the legs isn't showing through the sheep's body. When this happened on my quilt, I trimmed the legs down and had them match right up to the sheep's body. After fusing, I sewed around each of these parts about 1/8" away from the edge. This is called 'raw edge applique' and is my favorite applique method!
Step Three: Now it was time to sew my blocks together! Next, I cut 4 (4.5") border strips from the pink gingham fabric. These were sewn along the edges of the quilt.
Step Four: Last and certainly not least, it is time to baste and quilt! I used an 80/20 blend of batting for this quilt. April loves dense quilting, particularly swirls with hooks. Ordinarily, I would quilt right over the farm animals, but I wanted these adorable sheep to really stand out! I free-motion quilted a 1/4" border around each, then FMQ the rest of the quilt. I think it really adds depth and makes the sheep pop! Find videos of the FMQ process on my Instagram page.
The last step was to attach a lace binding. April has a very good eye for matching fabrics and little details. She picked the lace and it ended up being the most perfect addition!
Let me know what you think! I look forward to making more projects with these shirts for April in the future. While she doesn't have any grandbabies coming anytime soon... we will see what the next project is! What are you doing with your t-shirts??
-Ashley
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