Someone do a fact check, please. When did I say our house didn’t need one more quilt? I’m afraid to look because I know it wasn’t long ago. Yes, I fully admit I have a problem. But I had a situation pop up. I needed something to work on while we were camping. I needed to hand stitch something! I needed to work on binding. And all the quilts I need to make would take more than a week to finish or the recipients might or might not be camping with us. I needed a simple quilt and I needed it in a week. Good thing I was slow at work and would be around the house. Good thing I have a vat of thrifted sheets in my basement. Good thing I could solve my problem. Self-reliance is key.
I emailed my friend about my problem and solution. I got support because she also might or might not have a problem. She said that she’s event quilting: “We need a quilt to eat fried chicken on during the summer Sundays. That’s insane, right?” Who was she emailing? I justified making this quilt because I wanted a quilt the boys could get dirty. I was making a quilt to actually stain! That’s as insane as making a Fried-Chicken-For-Sunday-Dinners quilt. A week prior, Coop dropped a blueberry smoothie on the Granny Square quilt. It came out and my heart slowed back to normal. I want my quilts to get dirty, but a huge blue stain on white fabric was enough to give me a craft induced heart attack. So I gathered all the same color family of sheets and got to work.
Here’s some info I learned making this quilt:
- 6 inch squares stitched into a 12X12 square makes a pretty good picnic quilt.
- Thrifted sheets smell like shit when you iron them. They smell like a musty old woman’s house.
- Make sure to check your sheets for stains or cigarette holes if that kind of thing bugs you. I wanted a Get-Dirty quilt, so I didn’t really care. Plus I didn’t see them until the squares were ripped and stitched.
- Don’t rip out your work with sheets. Most are pretty thin and could possible rip further. Use a ripper and be careful.
- Stripe piece with 4 long panels and make a 4×4 square of patches. Then sew the 4×4 squares together to form a 12×12 square. Super fast and easy.
- Easy patchwork quilts are addictive.
- A good friend sent me a huge flat sheet and I used it for the back. Another good friend shares her finds when she’s thrifting. Add that combo and it makes this quilt a joint project. That I will love and graciously let them wipe their grubby fingers on if they dine with us.
- Don’t skimp on binding fabric or use a thinner sheet for the binding. I bought some gingham that was pretty thin. I knew better, but I wanted it done. Unconsciously, I cut off 3 corners when I was trimming. It was fate. I ripped a pillow case and added some thrifted binding. Besides the solids (leftover Kona from a previous project) and a few squares of (Urban Chiks Dream On) it is made entirely from thrifted sheets.
- This is the girliest thing I’ve ever made. It actually made me uncomfortable at one point. But I think it’s the perfect style for a picnic. Fried chicken or otherwise.
