How to Upcycle Receiving Blankets into a Quilt

Upcycled Baby Receiving Blankets into a Toddler Bed Quilt

After having 3 girls, I started accumulating pink receiving blankets. My kids grew out of them very quickly, and with #3 we mainly used them as burp rags instead.  For quite some time now they've been sitting in a closet, taking up precious space.  I was thrilled when I saw Heather from Handmade Haven had turned her receiving blankets into a baby quilt! Novel I thought, and then they still sat around my house, just no longer in a closet. I finally decided the receiving blankets had to be taken care of before the Princesses lost them all.  It was time to do a little upcycling!

To start out, you'll want to cut up your receiving blankets (I used 4).  I folded mine in half, and then cut them into 2 inch strips.

Once I had the strips, I cut through the fold so each 2 inch strip I cut was then 2, 2 inch strips (make sense?)

Now is the fun part, designing your quilt!  I wanted simple, yet fun. Don't worry if some pieces are longer than others you can either trim them down now, or after they're sewn together.

If you desired you could cut your strips down further to make separate blocks, but let's face it, I've got 3 kids running around, I could only keep those scissors out safely for so long.

Next start sewing! Make sure you have plenty of bobbin thread and spool thread (I was using old thread and had to replenish a few times, whoops!).  I used a 1/2 inch seam on all my edges. Once you have it sewn, trim any edges, and dangling thread.  Iron it out (unless you're lazy like me, and don't mind smoothing wrinkles out a lot!)

Take your new quilt top and lay it on top of your quilt batting.  Cut the batting the same size as the quilt.

Then lay quilt top and batting on wrong side of your backing.  I chose to use a fleece backing, because I like things soft. Note here that this will make your quilt very bulky to sew on your sewing machine. A simple cotton fabric, like more receiving blankets would be easier to sew through.

I made my backing larger than the quilt, because I am also using it as the edging.  Fold the backing over once to the edge of your quilt top, and then a second time over the quilt top edge. This is where you will sew it down. This seam does show, so use a coordinating color thread.

Mine is not quite finished. I am in the process of finding a quilt frame so I can tie it, and then I will sew the edges down. For now they are pinned.  I did sew one edge down, just to help stabilize it, and the fleece really did a number on my sewing machine. So if you use fleece, remember it's bulky, and it "sheds" into your machine. So take the time between edges to clean out your bobbin case. Most machines come with a cleaning brush, but if yours is missing like mine, a soft paint brush does the trick as well.

complete upcycled baby quilt

You can make your quilt any size, I chose toddler bed size, but if you have more blankets than me, you could make it bigger!