It's Tutorial Tuesday! Make an easy, but awesome recycled wool quilt!

I wanted a nice looking throw blanket for the family room, to keep on the couch. I was originally going to just make one with squares and rectangles, since most blanket patterns frighten me with their intricacy. I get easily intimidated, and tend to stick to easier projects. When I saw this quilt, The Beekeeper's Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits ...



... I loved the look of it, but that quilt is made of hand knit "hexipuffs". I don't know how to knit, so I made one with felted wool! I printed this hexagon, that I found online, and used it as my pattern. If you want to be done quicker, you can use a bigger hexagon, like this one, but then you can't utilize much smaller scraps.

I learned as I made this that the stiffer felted wools worked best for this. Felted cashmere, soft angora blends, etc. did not work very well. I didn't want the blanket to be stiff either, so I found that felted lambswool worked best, but you can use just about any felted wool.

First you will want to pick your colors. I tend to gravitate toward natural colors, but this time I wanted bright & cheerful! I used mostly scraps that I had on hand, and arranged them randomly. If you are more adventurous than me, you can make patterns, like on this antique quilt, that I saw at a flea market this weekend:


For a child that loves soccer, I think this would be adorable in black & white, like a soccer ball! For inspiration on patterns, simply Google "hexagon quilt", and click on the "images" tab at the top. Apparently this isn't an original idea ;).

Molly, from the Finish Something Already blog, shared her techniques with me (& now with you!), that she used on her gorgeous quilts.

One of Molly's beautiful recycled wool quilts:

Simply put 2 pieces together and zig-zag stitch right down the line. You will want to press the pieces together a little, as you sew, so they don't move apart, and they are snuggly sewn together.




Now just keep sewing more hexagons on, until the blanket is the size & shape you want. If you like the looks of the edges, you can leave it as-is, and be done.


I wanted a more finished edge, so I cut the edges evenly...


... then folded back the edge a 1/2 inch, and zig-zag stitched it down to the back.

the back:

the front:

I ironed it with steam, to get out the ripples, and I was done.


(like my posed reading pic? Lol)

It was super easy, but be warned... this took many hours to make! I found that the end result was was worth the hours I put in though, and I was glad I was able to use up so many scraps. What do you think?