Make Your Own Cutter Quilt Fabric

Back in November I talked about cutter quilts--old quilts that are too damaged to be useful as a quilt any longer, so they are  upcycled into other things, like pillows or stuffed toys.  If you don't happen to have old beat-up quilts lying around, but you want to make something with a vintage look, why not make your own cutter quilt fabric? 

I like to make stuffed heart ornaments with the pieces of  old quilts that my friends have given me, like these:

Look at the picture again, and see if you can tell which three hearts I made from old quilt pieces, and which one I made from a new piece of "cutter quilt" fabric?

(If you happened to read the post on  my other blog yesterday, you already know the answer!)

I hope you think they all look old.  The new one is on the far left, with the darker button.

I had a spare block from a quilt I made years ago, that I used to make my cutter fabric.  It was perfect because the reproduction prints had a lot of beige in them, so the fabrics looked old to start with!  I simply layered the block with batting (I used "Warm and Natural", which is a cotton batting similar to what you will find in old quilts.  Don't use polyester batting for this, because it won't shrink much when you wash it...and you WILL be washing it...that's how you give it an "aged" look) and backing fabric.  Then I hand-quilted it.  Since it was only 10" square, the quilting didn't take very long.

Here is the block right after I hand-quilted it:

Here it is after about a dozen washings.  It looks really old now, doesn't it!  I just threw it in the washer every time I ran a load of clothes, and then into the dryer.  It shrank a lot, but none of the fabrics showed any "wear and tear", so if you wanted it to look very worn, you might have to run it with your laundry for a couple of months!

I decided to use my cutter fabric for both the front and back of this heart, so it looks nice--and different--on each side.  I hand-sewed it with the raw edges exposed and the batting showing.  Here's one side:

Here's the other side:

These ornaments can be used in a lot of different ways--tied on gifts, strung onto a garland, hung on a Christmas tree, fastened onto a wreath...if you want to see what I do with them, check out my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts.  I've started my one-year challenge over there, and this heart will be #8!



My One-Year Challenge

I am so excited to tell you about the challenge I have set for myself in 2012!

My friend Susan pointed out to me that a lot of people have jumped onboard the  365 Photos train; they take a photograph every day for a year and change their life!  I don't expect to change my life, but I do expect to stretch my creativity with my personal challenge:  365 Sewn Hearts!  Yes, that's the name of my new blog, click on it and you will see that I have already started planning to sew a heart a day, starting on January 1, 2012.  I've always been a "heart" person (my user name on Craftster is Leslieshappyheart), so this is an obvious choice for a challenge for me.

Because Susan is such an awesome friend, she has also sent me some fabrics to jump-start my imagination as I plan my attack on the 365 hearts! 

These are the fabrics she sent from her stash.  All of these are small-ish prints, with more than enough fabric to make a big heart out of each one.  Yes, my imagination was indeed stimulated by these!  I have decided to start the year doing a series of hearts using an "A is for Apple" type theme (okay, she didn't send me any apple fabric, but she sure did send pigs, monsters, and handcuffs!)  Each heart will have the appropriate letter sewn on it.

The fabrics below came from a friend of hers in Hong Kong.  Because Susan is so awesome, she sent them straight to me, without even taking them out of their wrappers!  They are all so beautiful!  Thanks, Susan!

I hope you will visit the new blog (I'm already posting there daily); I would love it if you would offer me your ideas for new hearts.  I'm slightly worried that I will run out of ideas before the year ends!  Please "join" my blog so I will know that I'm not alone!