Weekend Quilt

This quilt can be made in a weekend if you have everything organised and ready to go.

Mine is a Make Do and Mend quilt, so I have used an old, ragged sleeping bag for the filling (removing the zip) and my husband’s old Oxford cloth shirt, my old linen skirt and some pieces of linen fabric which were languishing in my fabric cupboard.

The finished quilt measures 72" x 52" (132cm x 178cm).

You can see how ragged the sleeping bag is.  I mended the worst of it by stitching on some inexpensive white polyester cotton by machine. 

What you need to make the quilt:

• Enough coordinating fabric to make the patchwork. (approximately 3 1/2 meters).
• 2 meters of backing fabric 140 cm wide.   (I used a single flannelette sheet and cut it to size just before I attached it.)
• An old sleeping bag or blanket to use as the filling.
• A rotary cutter to cut the rectangles.  ( You could cut them with scissors as long as you ensure that the sides are perfectly straight.  Drawing on the fabric with a pencil helps.

Begin by cutting the following pieces:

• Fourteen 10” by 12” rectangles.   
• Thirty  8” by 10” and 3 8” by 5” rectangles.
• Forty  4” by 12”  rectangles.

With right sides together, stitch together the short ends of seven 10” by 12”rectangles to make a panel.  Do this twice for two panels.

Stitch together ten 8” by 10” rectangles and one 8” by 5”. To make a panel. Do this three times. You will need three panels.

Finally stitch together ten 4” by 10” rectangles to make a panel.   Do this four times. You will need four panels.

Press your seams all in the same direction.  Lay strips out on a flat surface and arrange your panels in this way.  Begin with an 8” wide panel, then follow with a 4” panel, then 10” 4” 8” 4” 10” 4” 8”. Stitch panels together lengthwise in groups of two or three.  Working with smaller groups of panels is easier to machine. Press seams.  Now join all the panels together lengthwise.

This is a back view of the quilt. Stitching is in progress.

With right sides together, attach the backing fabric on three sides, making a sort of duvet cover.  ‘Turn right side out and press again.  Slide the filler (sleeping bag, blanket) in just as you would if you were putting a duvet in its cover.

Pin carefully around the edges going through all the layers.

Turn up fabric at the bottom edge and stitch by hand or machine.

 Tie quilt using crewel wool and a chenille needle to keep all layers together. This is simply cutting 6” pieces of wool, stitching through the layers and tying a little knot or bow on the underside of the quilt.  I did mine at the corners of squares around the outside edges.  You may do a few randomly in the center as well.

Your quilt is finished. Enjoy.  It's light weight and very warm.