Beginning a New Project: Felted Wool Sweater Quilt

Invigorated by making the baby quilt for Meredith and Rico, I decided to embark on a new quilting adventure using recycled wool sweaters. I was inspired by some similar baby quilts I saw this summer in Vermont and was convinced it would not be too difficult.

Since I had a bunch of scraps hanging around after making some animal-shaped pillows, I figured it would be a fun project to work on as winter approaches. I quickly discovered that I needed way more sweaters than I had, so I made a couple of trips to Goodwill and Boomerangs to diversify my supply. I had hoped to find more funky patterns, but aside form some stripes here and there, the pickin's were slim. I had to settle on the majority of my stash being solids but since the colors are nice, I'm satisfied. I will note that the idea of this being a fully recycled and cheap project is somewhat misleading as I am pretty sure I spent about $50 on the thrift store sweaters to begin the project.

These photos show the quilt in process - labels below to explain the specifics. At this point, I am about half way through sewing up the primary side. I was able to machine sew the initial cut pieces into rows, but I have been hand-piecing the rows to each other (meaning Row 1 attached to Row 2, Row 2 attached to Row 3, etc.) so it is pretty slow going. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it might be done in time for the New England winter. Stay tuned.


This is a close up of the individual squares laid-out in the final pattern.


This is the full quilt laid-out as it will be sewn-up. The index cards indicate the order of the rows, so once I put the pieces away I am able to keep the exact order (sounds simple but seems to be a challenging task).


These are each of the rows of the quilt assigned to their own ziplock bag, along with a general legend to insure that my N/S/E/W orientation does not get mixed up.