Whole Cloth Quilts: Quick, Easy Projects

I’ve been really busy lately. I’ve been blessed with a lot more orders than usual, and there’s just been a lot going on around my house with my kids and school/work starting back up for me. I’ve also just released my “Sarah Elizabeht Quilt” pattern, so that tied me up a lot as well. I know I’m not the only one with a crazy schedule. This happens to all of us from time to time. So, for today, I have a quick and fun project idea for you. There’s not any complicated quilt math, and it makes a great gift.

So, all you’re going to do is use a sheet for the top, make your backing, and baste, quilt, and bind! It’s basically a whole cloth quilt, but by using a sheet you open up so many fun possibilities. Look at how cute those little animals are! If you aren’t familiar with the term, a whole cloth quilt is a quilt that uses a solid piece of fabric for the top.

The inspiration quilt

The quilt pictured in this post is one that I made for a friend. She’d had that super cute sheet for while and asked me if I could use it to make a quilt for her. We decided to match the backing and binding to the blue in the letters, and I’m really happy with how that turned out.

I’d never made a whole cloth quilt before this one. After finishing this quilt, I’m not sure why I waited so long to make one of these. This quick and fun project can be easily customized to lots of occasions and recipients. This would also be a great way to preserve the memories from your kids’ baby or toddler bedding too! There’s very little cutting and ZERO piecing. If you’re like me and love the quilting part, this is a great way to get to that step a whole lot sooner.

What you need?

A Sheet – Either a flat sheet or fitted sheet will do. You could also use wide fabric bought by the yard
batting – I used Warm and White for this one.
Fabric for backing and binding – I used a Kona Cotton. You can find Kona cotton here.
Thread – I used a trilobal polyester quilting thread by Missouri Star Quilt Co. for the quilting and Gutermann All Sew for attaching the binding and for the decorative stitch on the binding

This was actually a fitted sheet. It wasn’t an issue; I just cut off the ends with the elastic and squared those sides, leaving as much of the sheet intact for the quilt top as possible. A flat sheet would be even easier.

I have a post on a no fuss method for making backing, and a post about basting if you want to check those out.

I quilted this one with some free motion loops. I do have a video of me quilting loops if you want to check it out. If you haven’t jumped in to free motion quilting yet, I have some tips for that here and here.

Everyone always asks me where I get my labels. These are great labels that don’t smudge or fade in the wash. I get them custom made by Melanie at Meander + Make. I’ve even got a coupon code for you. Use the code SNUGGLEBUGSTITCHING for 10% off!

For binding, I flip back and forth between traditional binding and a hybrid of making binding and using backing as binding. I used traditional binding from 3″ strips on this one, but I do have a post on my hybrid technique here. I love using a decorative stitch on the binding because it looks good on both the front AND the back.