Repurpose: Recieving Blankets into a Quilt

For any of you that have children, you know how many receiving blankets you manage to collect.  They are so soft and snuggly.  And they are perfect for all that newborn goodness that we all just want to absorb and never forget.

  After having my five boys, I was so excited to be pregnant with a girl!  But I knew that I needed girl stuff, and I couldn't just throw away all those receiving blankets.  They were faded and worn, but still in good condition.  So I decided to make a quilt out of them.   

Now I have to add this disclaimer, I am not a quilter, nor do I claim to be.  Would I love to be one? Yes!  But for right now, this is as good as it gets.  I wanted simple and I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but this is what I did and it worked!  I actually made this quilt about 5 or 6 years ago and it has been a family favorite ever since.  It has been used and abused and still has held up great!

This is how I made it in a nutshell.  I cut the blankets into 4 inch strips.  I took the different strips and sewed them together.  This made large blocks.  I then took those large blocks and cut them into 4 inch strips again.  And sew the strips together again to make large blocks. This is how I made the squares. There is no rhyme or reason to the pattern.  But that is what I wanted.  I pieced all my large blocks  together to make the quilt.

I wanted to continue with all that softness, so I chose to use flannel for the back.  The top of my quilt was a little too small for a twin size, so I took a large flannel sheet and cut it down.  I used the part I cut down for a border on the top.  And the rest of the flannel sheet for the back.

I hand quilted the whole thing in a diagonal fashion.  I love the colors, except for maybe the Winnie the Pooh fabric, but it's part of the blankets, so I needed to add it. :)  This quilt has a whole lot of character and memories!

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