Such a Cutup - a quilted up cycle.

A friend of mine the other day got me thinking about living room and bedroom pillows and how sometimes near spring it feels really good to have new pillows on the couches and beds.  I didn't want to go out and get new fabric and such but I really wanted to do some recovering and patching on some of the pillows that have had a lot of use this winter!  A few have holes and just look ratty now.

The quilt on our bed has been on there about 10 years - I made it for Chad (the Hubby) and it is a giant king sized quilt with a wonderful flannel backing on it.  But after all of the years and it has been on the bed nearly the whole time - it would get washed, hung to dry and then right back on the bed - it is worn out and also looking ratty!  I kept finding little pieces of fabric when I would make the bed (not as often as I would like) and I thought at first that maybe the dog was chewing the quilt - I was horrified of course until I realized that it was not chewed on fabric - just worn and frayed.

It is a giant quilt - California King with a decent drape all around - backed with flannel and a great winter weight.   The pattern is my personal favorite, Sawtooth Star.

Above photo shows some of the wear - all of the white is where there is batting showing through!  It was well loved! So - it was time to upcycle the quilt ot turn it into a "cutter".

I decided to make pillow cases for it - cover up those ratty couch pillows and make some cases for our bed and for the 26" T.V. watching pillows as well!  The cutting mat on the quilt is the exact size to do the bed pillow covers.  Hubby did ask me what the heck I thought I was doing when I started cutting but once I told him he relaxed and agreed that it might be a good use for that quilt instead of making it a dog bed or throwing it away,

Above shows the flannel backing on a piece of the cut quilt - this is for the big tv pillows.  I cut the top to the right size and then I cut the pillow backing pieces in two pieces that are about 2/3 the size of the width of the pillow.  Then I sewed a hem on each smaller piece where they would overlap in the pillow.  That way once you sew them together it is easy to change them and wash them but the pillow cant fall out.

Above is the big TV pillow - I was able to do two of these.

Here is the holey couch pillow that I recovered - it is about 18" square.

Here is the bed pillow with a cover on it - I was able to get three of these from the cutter quilt - enough to go across the entire bed.  There were some pieces that I had to cut around as they were too worn as you could see in the top photos, and there ended up being a few pieces that were too small to do anything with - at least for my skill level.  This is not ideal and the pillows will eventually have to be recovered again - it will be the end of a great quilt but we at least gave it a little more life for a little longer.  I will be working next (or soon) on a quilt to replace the one I cut - stay tuned for that but remember - gardening season is coming too!  My green thumb is also calling me!