Funny how sometimes I will find matching sheets on the same day…

I really like butterflies…

I absolutely LOVE this one. And… it’s in perfect condition, I think it was barely used. And… it KING size. And… I have two matching pillowcases, also in perfect condition. I really hate cutting into it, so I was thinking of offering it for sale as is. The sheet for $15 and pillowcases $3.50 each.

If anyone is interested before I put these in the shop, let me know. How about a 10% off??

Recently I have been… I am reluctant to say this… yes… “a bit” hooked on thrifting… vintage sheets to be more precise. A few weeks ago I found a flat sheet and a pillowcase with this beautiful butterflies, designed by Hanae Mori. I was distracted by other projects for a while, but then I just grabbed the sheet and started cutting the butterflies (unfortunately, it’s a border print, so there is only about 20 butterflies there; the good thing is that the rest of the sheet was more than enough for all the sashing – it was actually refreshing to work with fabric and not have to calculate every piece, not having to worry about miscutting, being able to rip strips…):

First I cut all squares, but then I thought some squares, some rectangles might be more fun. Then I selected 3 colors (apart form brown which appears in every butterfly) for the inner frame – yellow, blue and orange. That was not so easy as I don’t have a big stash of solids. Actually, only the blue is from a solid fabric. Red and brown (the outer frame) come from a striped fabric which looks a bit like shot cotton. And the yellow comes from another striped fabric. It took a while to cut enough stripes (luckily, the all the stripes were exactly the width I needed – 3/4 in).

After the inner frame was done, I added the background fabric around, to make a 12 in square. The size is completely random. I started with the biggest butterfly, added the “background” and cut to what looked good, which was 12×12 in. Not very scientific. I did the same with all other butterflies, placing only 3 (framed in orange) in the middle of the big square (that is approximately in the middle). Just to calm the movement a bit. I like randomness in design, but some regularity, some symmetry is always good.

Finally, when the squares were finished, and the sashing was about to be added, I felt – hmmm, that I needed something else, something… So I created these tiny squares (from the 3 inner frame colors) and made them the center of sashing in between squares in each row:

and since I had some left (the strips with tiny squares), I also put them on the border, in each corner. Hope this explanation makes sense.

I don’t have a picture of the fabric I used for the back – but it’s another vintage sheet with stripes in almost the same colors as on the front (except for the blue). I really lucked out on this one. I used the same sheet to make a bias tape for binding:

I usually don’t cut binding on the bias for quilts – there are no curves, and I really don;t want it to stretch too much. I find that binding not cut on bias gives quilt edges more firmness. But this time, just because of the stripes design on the sheet, I wanted them “slanted” on the binding.

And now the quilting….

]]> http://www.flekka.com/words/quilt/flutters-quilt/feed/ 0 http://www.flekka.com/words/life/one-of-those-days-except-its-been-almost-two-weeks/ http://www.flekka.com/words/life/one-of-those-days-except-its-been-almost-two-weeks/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:59:33 +0000 nina http://www.flekka.com/words/?p=1097 Yes, I have had one of those days. When you have things planned out. Then sh.. stuff happens. Except it lasted for two weeks. First a little one got sick. Fever, congestion, coughing. And coughing is the worst, because it almost always end in throwing up. So when he starts coughing, we run to the bathroom.

And then this week I get a call from preschool. The call I have been dreading, one I never wanted to get. Lice. Yes. I picked him up, then ran to pick Luka up, the called Hair Whisperers. It was either that, or go into the Hair Fairy salon. Excuse me? I never even new these services existed. Not before that morning. But I am grateful (even at $95/hr) because who would check my hair? My husband? I don’t think so.

The good think is that it was a very mild case. Actually Luka was clean. But I still have some laundry sitting in the garage. I am not folding today though. Because if I do, I might scream.

The best part of the week was a nice find at the thrift store: A complete twin set designed by Hanae Mori. Must admit I have never heard of her before. But I like it very much!

Here is to next week!

I don’t know what happened. It might be a fluke – but I’ll keep looking… Let me share some pics (click on the picture to see it bigger):

sheets…

more sheets…

even more sheets (these are all with smaller prints).

Some pillowcases:

And finally my favorite find (a sheet):

.and what do you know it’s vintage marimekko. Ha! I love it!

So what am I going to do with all this. I got plans. Sewing. And sharing. I want to share. So the plan for today is to cut some fat quarters from the sheets and tomorrow I will give you the details for the giveaway. (btw I washed all the sheets and pillowcases at least once at 140 F. Most of the stains are out and the smell – no more smell.)