Quilted Tea Towel Pillow Cover

I have another recent pillow project to share! I thrifted this vintage tea towel so long ago that I can't even find a photo of it! Honestly, it could have been 15 years ago for all I remember. I know I've had it for a really long time. Last month I decided it was finally time to make it into something! This idea was fueled by thrifting a long rectangular pillow form. I realized that this tea towel was pretty much the perfect size for a cover.



I knew I wanted to use an invisible zipper for this cover so that it would be a double sided pillow. Lucky me, I had this geometric canvas print by Ellen Luckett Baker in my stash that coordinated nicely in color and design to the tea towel. I started this project by quilting both pieces. After cutting them both to size, I used my serger to finish all the edges.



Ta-da! The finished result! I love how it turned out. Such a simple project, but so satisfying. The tea towel is so funky, I am very glad that it is out of storage and living its life as a pillow cover!


And the other size is fun too. I started working on this pillow after our local JoAnn fabrics closed and honestly had a hard time sourcing an invisible zipper that matched and was long enough. My Mom brought me one from her stash, but while she was visiting we went to Ecoworks, our local craft thrift store and they had the perfect match! It's the same color blue as the back of the pillow and the length was just right. It's like it was meant to be. My application of it could have been better, but that's okay. I haven't installed that many invisible zippers in pillows, so I just need some more practice!

If we're keeping track, this project used a thrifted pillow insert, thrifted tea towel, and thrifted zipper! :)

Happy Sewing!

Quick Note for My Email Subscribers

Dear Friends, I realized today that my email subscription service has not been working properly. For the last few years I have been paying for a service (Follow.it) to be able to send you full blog posts via email without ads. Unbeknownst to me, my account was reverted back to the basic free plan which simply sends a notification email with ads. I was still paying into my account every month, which is why I did not notice the change sooner.

I have (hopefully!) fixed this issue. Future posts should show up in full in your inbox again, without any ads.

Take care,
Jeni

Vintage Striped Sheet Quilt

Happy Thursday! I have a finished quilt to share today. This quilt has been in progress most of the Summer, and I'm excited that it's finished!


Whenever I rip up a vintage sheet for fat quarter bundles, there are always leftovers. Either a long strip that wasn't wide enough or pieces that are just under fat quarter size. After I made striped sheet bundles this Spring, I decided to cut into all those leftovers instead of folding them into my stash.

There are still some striped sheet bundles available, find them here: Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Bundles



My inspiration for this quilt was strip quilts. Quilts like Scrap Happy by Amy Smart, and this quilt by Steffi Troy. Obviously these kinds of quilts used strips pieces together, but I wanted to play with achieving a similar look with a striped fabric. I used the block from the free Tessellation Quilt Pattern I shared when Geometric Bliss came out. These blocks are smaller, I cut the stripe squares 4.5" and the background squares 2.5"! I cut all the stripes on the bias so that I would get the look I wanted.


I paired the stripe sheets with a plain white sheet that I also thrifted! I've picked up a few recently but this is the first one I actually cut into. I like that all the fabrics in this quilt are reclaimed!


All the stripes! I love how this turned out. I kept the palette strictly to the sheets I used when I made the bundles, but now I'm tempted to make another all stripes quilt with my whole collection. They're so fun all together.


Quilting is simple as usual, I followed all the vertical and horizontal lines with 1/4" quilting on each side.


For the back I used this incredible striped sheet! It feels very 80s to me, especially the colors.


I honestly struggled with choosing a binding for this quilt. I knew I wanted it to be a stripe of course, but finding something that went with the very specific color palette on the back as well as the front was tough. In the end I made a scrappy binding from sheets I used in the top.


Always a win when I remember to use one of my tags!



Dusty cat (and baby girl) really likes this quilt! She was trying to lounge when I was trying to take photos. Such a silly goose!


Vintage Striped Sheet Quilt
Pattern: Modified Tessellation Quilt Pattern (free)
Fabrics: Vintage Reclaimed Bedsheets

Happy Quilting!

What I'm Working on Right Now

Happy Tuesday! I wanted to share a little bit of what I'm working on right now. I'm mostly working on moving prep and taking care of our toddler, but there has been some sewing too. Not as much as I'd like, but I know that is temporary!


When going through my closet a few weeks ago, I pulled some handmade shirts that I haven't worn in a long time. One was a tunic made from this excellent dot from Habitat by Jay McCarroll. I decided to chop it up for the fabric instead of letting it continue to languish in my closet. Right away I turned it into a drawstring bag! This is the bottom accent from the expansion pattern. I used a scrap of leftover sparkly cotton by Robert Kaufman for the accent, a purple blender for the lining and some cotton twill that I dyed last year for the ties! (In case you missed it: Tie Dye Twill Tape Tutorial) This is an everything size bag. I used my Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern and Expansion Pattern to make it.


Another drawstring bag! I had the fabrics pulled for this one for years! I was cleaning out my WIP storage and found this combination. It was perfect for an afternoon where I didn't have much time, but wanted to sew. I don't work a lot with black fabrics, but I really like how this bag turned out! I love how the black ruler twill tape looks with these prints.



I can't stop making towel bags!! I need to write a dedicated post about working with towels, they're just so much fun. I found this incredible mustard/gold plaid towel at the outlet and knew it would make some great bags. I was able to squeeze two boxy bags, made using my Triplizip Pattern, plus a plain flat pouch. I was so glad that I had some matching zippers on hand.



I've been working on a new quilt for the last month using all striped vintage sheets. Actually, I used scraps leftover from putting together these stripe bundles. I'm hoping to share more when I share the finished quilt soon!


Another project made from a vintage quilt, a giant bow! I didn't have a seasonal wreath to hang on the door for Summer, so I made this bow! It has a bit of random interfacing to give it a bit of structure. I serged the cut ends and hung it up with a zip-tie. Easy peasy! And I love it.



Saved some little half-square triangles leftover from making my Starflower zipper pouches, turned into a few random blocks!


I have started slowly adding things to my online shop as a part of a moving sale! I'll continue to do so through the Fall. These will be a dedicated post about it hopefully in the next month or so!


I'll leave you with a photo of Dusty cat helping in the sewing room. So nice!

Happy Sewing!

Reclaimed Vintage Quilt Pillows

Happy Friday! Today I want to share a pair of quilted pillow covers I made recently from thrifted quilts!

This was one of the first quilts that I thrifted from the Goodwill Outlet. It unfortunately has a lot of damage, so I knew right away it was going to end up being cut up. So far I've made this pillow and a giant bow out of it!


For this pillow I decided to cut the front at a 45 degree angle, so it looks like the blocks are on point! This allowed me to take advantage of some of the blocks that were in better shape. It's hard to tell from the photos, but this pillow is huge! The form is around 26" square.


I used more of the quilt for the back, centering two blocks.


I did a zippered closure with end tabs for a nice clean look. This is my favorite way to finish pillow covers. I am really proud to say this entire pillow is made from reclaimed materials! I thrifted the pillow form, quilt, scrap fabric and the zipper. I ripped the zipper out of a duvet cover that I found.


This quilt is another Goodwill Outlet find, and most of it became my first quilted coat! I still need to share more about that.


I made this pillow cover for my Mom, for Mother's day! I thought it would look nice in her craft room.


I finished the back of this cover with more scraps of the quilt!


And another zippered closure. Since I was working with already quilted material, these pillow covers came together really fast! I sergered around the edges of all the pieces before I started sewing, to make sure they'll hold up to a gentle wash.

Happy Sewing!

Scrappy Canvas Pencil Pouches

Happy Monday! Today I want to share a some zipper pouches I made recently!


I dug into my canvas scraps for these pencil pouches made from Anna Graham's Canvas Pencil Pouch Tutorial. I haven't made any of these in 8 years (see my first batch here), it was fun to revisit this design!


This time around I went completely scrappy. I don't reach for my canvas scraps often, so I wanted to use up as many scraps as I could while making these. This meant that two of the three pouches I made had different fabrics for the front and back! I think it adds a bit of whimsy to them!


Even the linings came from the scrap bin! Using up scraps is so satisfying.


I had three metal zippers that were the right side, which is why I made three pouches! Well, plus I can't just make one. My Mom requested another (I gave her one of the original pouches I made years ago), which is why I made new ones in the first place! I figured I could find uses for the other two.


How fun do they look from the bottom?!


This is a wonderful design, and a great tutorial by Anna! I was glad to make these again and also to use up some scraps! It had been a while since I've used these metal zippers, they are so nice. I have plenty more in other sizes, I feel like I should reach for them more often!

Pattern: Canvas Pencil Pouch Tutorial by Anna Graham
Fabric: Scrap stash
Notions: Metal zippers from Zipit*

Happy Sewing!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Early Summer Garden Update

Happy Thursday! Today I want to share an early summer garden update with you all! I was pretty vague with my garden plans for this year when I shared them in February, because I had no idea what this year was going to hold! There was a possibility that we would move over the summer and I'd have no garden. Since we aren't moving until the end of 2025, I went ahead with a pretty full garden.

Before we dive into some garden updates, I found a four leaf clover in our yard this week!! My first. I've been buying clover seed instead of grass seed the last few years and it finally paid off!


Our driveway garden is full as usual! I did skip the peppers this year. I did about half the amount of tomatoes that I typically do. Instead I'm doing mini pumpkins, snow peas, bush beans and way more flowers.


Almost all my tomato plants are starting to set fruit, hooray! Hoping for tomatoes soon. I'm growing sungold, chocolate pear, patio choice yellow and golden jubilee.


I had a great time growing snow peas this year! Got a pretty good harvest considering how few plants I had. And the flowers were so pretty! Will definitely grow some again.


I added a lot more flowers both in pots and in the raised beds this year. The calendula is just starting to bloom.


Picked up seeds for a couple different trailing nasturtium and they're doing really well so far!! Blooms are on their way.


I moved most of my mini hostas that I'm taking with me into these two shallow pots that I had on the driveway. They're loving this spot.


We planted out a ton of dahlias this year and still had lots to share with friends. This was an especially tiny tuber that I planted after it sprouted. Pretty cool that this will become a regular sized plant!


I missed pinching a couple of dahlia seedlings so I got my first bloom early! It's a stunner!


My first time getting Lupine to survive and bloom in our yard!! We bought this plant as a seedling last year and I'm shocked that it has thrived where we put it. It's also the most lovely color! I plan to save seeds from it.


Our mock orange really showed off this year. It's a double and it smells so good.


I took a few years away from growing morning glory but decided to throw some seeds in the ground this year. I'm growing some up my free little library!


Another show stopper this year, our mountain laurel. They had an off year in 2024, so it was a treat to see them bloom so well this year! They happen to be the state flower for Pennsylvania, so I have a feeling we'll have another one day!


The hydrangeas are absolutely laden with blooms, although they aren't loving our current heat wave. I'm hoping the blooms will recover once the weather cools down.


Finally, my oak leaf hydrangea! I planted this in the fall and it not only survived the winter, but is thriving! It's such a pretty bush, and the leaves turn red in the fall.

Thanks for coming along on my virtual garden walk today! I'll be back with some crafty updates soon.

Happy Gardening!