I love to go on the hunt for unique items to use in my crafting. One of the treasures that I love to find, I call ‘cutter quilts’. These are well loved quilts that are beyond repair but still have a story to tell. I like to imagine the people that used these quilts and what their lives might have been like. I think about the hours and hours of love and labor that went into each stitch of the quilt. Then, I know that I have to take it home and bring some life back to the pieces that can be salvaged. Let’s take a peek into my world of crafting with ‘cutter quilts’!!
Just imagine walking into a thrift store or Goodwill, and seeing the quilt above. You might think, “oh, that would look lovely laying over my sofa or on my guest room bed.” Then you open it up and find holes and missing pieces and tears that are beyond repair. BUT, this quilt calls your name…it says, “save me from the trash!” So, now what can you possibly do with it? Let me show you how to lovingly give some life back to your quilt.
How about if you start using pieces of your quilt by making some flowers or butterflies? In the crafts shown above, I googled butterfly shapes and heart shapes and then printed the ones that I liked, to use as patterns. I used dowels from Dollar Tree for the flower stems, and spindles from Amazon for the butterfly bodies. I stuffed them with polyfil from Wal-mart and used my Surebonder Cool Shot heat gun with regular glue, to assemble them. Aren’t they adorable?
I love making homemade ornaments for my Christmas tree! Again, I went to Google and printed a pattern of a mitten to make these cute quilted mittens for my tree. I used pieces of ribbon for the loops to hang them and embellished them with buttons. I then used embroidery floss to stitch around the mitten to give the illusion of quilting stitches.
Who can have too many pillows? Not me! Here I used one of the Magnolia 18×18 zippered pillow cases, which come in a 2 pack. https://bit.ly/2FB1jEi I then free handed a pattern for the flower, stuffed the pieces with polyfil, used embroidery floss around the outside of each piece, and embellished them with buttons, before gluing it all together. This pillow will not be washable because the quilt pieces are very fragile. BUT, it certainly brings back the charm of the quilt!
In the Spring, I made some of my signature flowers by cutting different sized circles and gluing them together and embellishing them with buttons. I even put pins on the back of them so that I could wear them as a broach on the lapel of my jean jacket. Then, I made some adorable Easter eggs and wrapped them with torn pieces of duck cloth. To finish them off, I glued tiny flower petals on them. They would look so good in a dough bowl or on a tiered tray!
Thanks for checking out my ‘cutter quilt’ post. Do you have a quilt in your home that you can re-love into some beautiful crafts? If not, let the hunt begin!!
Blessings, Hiedi
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