Happy Wednesday! I finally took photos of my vintage bear paw baby quilt that I made back in October, so that's what I'm sharing today!


This was a quilt I never actually intended to make. When I picked up my vintage bear paw blocks last year, I ended up having a marathon cutting session and cut way too many blocks. I used 30 blocks to make my throw quilt, see my post about that quilt here: Vintage Bear Paw Quilt. After that I had 10 blocks left, so I decided to use 9 for a baby quilt and then also make a pillow!


The main colors I cut too many of were green and pink! So this baby quilt has a lot of green and pink in it. Some of these blocks don't have a lot of contrast, so it doesn't photograph the greatest, but it's really soft in person. It's also soft to the touch of course, because of the vintage sheets.


I had a just the right size cut of this green vintage sheet to use as the backing. It's one of my favorites. You can see the quilting best from the back, I did something a little different. A twist on my usual wavy quilting, I quilted a wavy crosshatch! I think it really goes well with the retro design of the backing fabric.



For the binding, I used the same fabric as the backing. I was so pleased, I was able to cut all the binding strips from the wide top hem of the sheet! Felt extra thrifty. Also I kind of love using the same fabric for the backing and binding on a quilt. It's a look!


Used one of my custom woven labels again. I've been really consistent with labeling my quilts lately!



Please forgive these photos, I clearly need to find a slightly smaller pillow form for this pillow cover! But this was what I had, so that's why it's looking a bit over-stuffed. I took the final extra block and just added a simple border on all four sides. I also pulled out this chevron sheet for the back, which I think is a perfect match for this very green and yellow pillow!



It's quilted pretty simply, just some straight lines. It gets the job done though!


I really should get a photo of all three vintage bear paw projects together. For now here's one more shot of the baby quilt. If you're interested in making a quilt like this (or like the throw), I have a pattern available, details are below.

Pattern: Vintage Bear Paw Quilt Pattern (by me!)
Fabrics: Reclaimed vintage sheets

Happy Quilting!

Finished: Vintage Bear Paw Quilt + Pattern

Happy Thursday! I am SO happy to share my latest quilt finish with you all! I present to you my finished Vintage Bear Paw Quilt!! I started this quilt back in Spring of 2019, so it's been a few years in the making!


I had a vision for this quilt when I first started it, but it honestly turned out better than the picture in my head. The only downside is I don't think it's true beauty shows up that well in photos. The contrast in places is so minimal and I think that's part of what makes it hard to capture. I love how soft it feels and looks.

I've written two pretty in depth posts about this quilt when it was in progress, which you can read here: Work in Progress: Vintage Sheet Bear Paw Quilt and Progress Check In: Vintage Sheet Bear Paw Quilt


This quilt is made entirely of reclaimed vintage bedsheets. Almost all of them came from thrift stores, but a few I found at antique stores, flea markets and couple on Etsy. One of my favorite things about my vintage sheet quilts is that quite a few of the fabrics in my collection have the memory of finding it attached. I also love being able to find/use the same print in multiple colors. I've been building my stash of sheets since 2006 or 2007? During the years that I sold vintage sheet fat quarters, I'd try to save a small piece of every different print that came through my doors. That allowed me to collect so many prints!

This design is pretty simple, it's really just a bear paw quilt block without any sashing or center squares! I used two colors in each block, using multiple fabrics for each color. I also coordinated the background fabrics for each block specially. A block that is orange and pink also has a white with orange background fabric and a white with pink background fabric.


I actually ended up making way too many blocks for this quilt, so I also made a baby quilt and a pillow, which I'll share soon! For the quilting, I kept things simple as usual. I did a combination of straight line quilting on the diagonal as well as vertically and horizontally.


I chose a really special sheet for the backing! This was one of the first sheet designs I thrifted and I fell in love with it right away. Lucky me I've thrifted a few more over the years and I happened to have this one tucked away that was the perfect size.


For the binding I ended up settling on this pink gingham. I would have loved to do a multi-colored stripe but didn't have enough of anything in my stash.


I remembered to add a label, again! I'm so pleased that I've been using these consistently again.


If you're interested in making a quilt like this too, I wrote up a pattern for it! (I promise I'm done releasing patterns for the year!!)

You can find the pattern for sale here: Vintage Bear Paw Quilt Pattern


The pattern features five sizes, including: Baby (40.5"x40.5"), Small Throw (54"x67.5"), Square (67.5"x67.5"), Large (67.5"x81"), Extra-Large (81"x94.5"). It's written for fat quarters but there are tables and instructions for cutting from scraps or other stash too. There are also coloring sheets for each quilt size so you can easily plan out your quilt!


My quilts made from vintage sheets are some of my very favorite, and I am looking forward to starting another one too! Perhaps not quite as long-term as this one turned out to be!

Happy Quilting!

Progress Check In: Vintage Sheet Bear Paw Quilt

Happy Wednesday! I've been thinking a lot lately about how I share my work and how much that process has changed and evolved over the years. When I first started to share my sewing projects online, it was through Flickr. Then eventually I started this blog. A few years later Instagram and social media took off, and I started sharing there too. Each platform lends itself to a different type of sharing. At some point I started posting less casual sewing progress here on my blog, sharing it on Instagram instead. I'd like to share that kind of thing here again. Hopefully that ramble made sense to anyone other than me!


As I mentioned in my June Monthly Report, I pulled out an old work-in-progress, my Vintage Sheet Bear Paw Quilt. I started it back in 2019, but for the last year or so I've made little to no progress on it. The other day I was looking for a project to sink my teeth into and I decided to pull this quilt out. I love to work with vintage sheets and I loved the blocks I had already made for it.


I have nine fully complete blocks, but thanks to my renewed dedication to the project, I now have a batch of newly finished block quarters to make another 12 blocks. I'm making them in big batches this time around, which is working really well so far.


I've been working by color, first focusing on pinks, some oranges and some blues. My next stack of squares is all greens. Then I'll tackle the yellow and the purples. I'm leaving the blocks in quarters for now so that I can arrange them into blocks when I get through all the colors I'm using.


Depending on the task and how hot it is, I'm either working in the sewing room, in our office, or in front of the tv in the living room. It's easiest to cut upstairs, since all my fabric is there. But it's great to be able to trim and pressing downstairs where it's cooler.


This past weekend I was trimming and batch of half-square triangles and realized I was using quite a bit of force to move the cut. When had I last changed my rotary blade? If you're looking for a sign to change your blade (or needle), this is it! A quick change and wow, so much better. Since they get dull relatively slowly I sometimes don't notice until I've been using a dull blade for weeks!


Dusty kitty has been helping me work on this project. Keeping me company and supervising. Making sure I'm doing everything just right! So thoughtful.


I know it's not for everyone, but this is my kind of sewing, working assembly line style or in batches. It works so much better for me than making each block start to finish. I'm not sure why I was making this quilt that way before. Perhaps to get myself out of my comfort zone? Either way, I'm glad to be back to my usual style of work. It's also perfect for binge watching tv, which is fun.


I can't wait to get these block quarters sewn up into blocks. They're so bright and happy. It feels good to be making progress on this quilt. The quilts I've made with vintage sheets are some of my very favorites and I know this one will be too. Hoping to keep up this pace and finish this quilt in the next month or so!

Happy Quilting!