A Colorful Surf Inspired Re-Quilted Quilt...and a Tutorial

As I pack and plan, I am also working on lots of easy projects for the boys rooms. One of the first projects I wanted to complete was a set of quilts for my youngest son's surfer themed bedroom. One problem is that I don't really know how to make a quilt. But I had an idea. 

I had an old king size quilt that I bought several years ago from TJ Maxx. It wasn't a style I saw us carrying into the new house, so I decided to re-work the quilt into 2 twin quilts!

Basically, I took the king quilt and folded it in half. Then I pulled the top portion of the quilt over about another inch. I thought making one quilt a bit wider would fit better on the bottom bunk, and then the smaller quilt would still fit fine on the top bunk with the bed rails. Does that make sense? 

I did not measure or anything because I assumed that a king is basically two twins...I folded, added an inch to the top piece and then just cut it in half.

The next step was deciding the pattern I wanted. I had envisioned strips. I bought basic cotton material from Hobby Lobby, $2.99/yard. I bought a couple yards of teal, orange, yellow. I also bought a 1/2 yard of navy blue and gray as well. 


I folded the material over to cut a nice think strip. I used my first strip as a template and cut traced it on the material for the rest of my stripes. 

I started by laying out my stripes, alternating colors. I decided that the orange and blue stripes were starting to look like a circus tent. So I trimmed my stripes and decided to do skinnier stripes the opposite direction with an additional color. 

Once I had all my stripes cut, I laid them all out to make sure I liked the look. Then I just lay the first two facing each other and sewed a stitch the length of the material. Then I add on in alternating colors until I had the width I needed. I completed the same process for the skinnier stripes as well.


Next, I sewed the skinny sections to the wider sections and then ironed the whole thing to straighten everything out. I noticed that I could see the pattern underneath the orange and yellow stripes, so I took an old flat white sheet and sewed it directly to my old quilt. I don't have pictures of this step. 

At this point, I was ready to actually attach the new "top" onto the old quilt. I did a zig zag stitch along each color change. So the middle section had 14 long stitches and 5 shorter stitches at each end for a total of 10 smaller stitches. 


At this point, it would start to bother other people. As I was stitching the new top on it started to pucker and bunch at the edges. I was mildly irritated but let the bunching add up along the edges. When I had it all sewn to the old quilt I literally just cut off the bunching along each edge. This allowed me to have a more smooth top. 

After cutting the bunched up edges so that everything lay smooth, I noticed that my edges were no loneg even or squared. So I did a little more trimming and then decided I was going to just have to add a new back to the quilt as well so that I could hide all the imperfections. 


But first, I wanted to add a little decoration to the center of the quilt. Since his room is a surf theme, I added a navy blue surfboard shape and the shape of a shark onto the surf board. 

First I used a zigzag stitch to sew the shark shape onto the surfboard and then I used a zigzag shape to sew the surfboard onto the middle of the quilt. It was a little tedious but fairly simple. 

The finally step, I took a navy blue sheet from Wal-Mart and spread it out of the floor. Then I lay the quilt, top facing up, on top of the sheet. I trimmed the sheet to have about an inch or two all the way around the quilt. Then I folded over the trimmed edge and wrapped it around the edge of the quilt. This actually made the quilt look finished and more authentic. 

I pinned down the navy edges and then using a zigzag stitch, hemmed all the way around the entire quilt. The contrasting edge looks amazing. I love how it balances and tones down all the bright colors. It also ties into the surfboard and brings in more colors from his inspiration picture.

I also then hemmed along the surf board and the along the hem lines of the skinny stripes. This just secured the navy blue backing to the rest of the quilt better.
 

The last part did cause additional bunching, which might ruin the quilt for some people but for me, I could care less. I don't really know why I dealt with so much bunching but I would guess it had something to do with pulling the fabric through the sewing machine unevenly. 

The final completed product is great. It may not last for years and years, but it did not cost me $200+ that a pottery barn quilt would have and it matches my son's room great. 


The bunk beds are packed away, waiting for the move. So for now, my final image is just of it stretched out of the living room floor. My son is super excited and loves the shark in the middle. I washed it last night and did notice a couple spots along the shark that I will probably reinforce. Once we move and his room is set up I will update on how it fits his bed.

I am linking up to The Shabby Creek Cottage.
Please go checkout all the inspiring projects!  




Disclaimer: I do not know how to quilt, I do not measure and I do not take things being even and perfect seriously at ALL. I respect those who know how to professional quilt...this project was a way to use what I already had and create an affordable option for my sons room.