Sewing: Simple flannel quilts from sheet sets

A few months ago we decided to hold a blanket drive for our local fire station.  They try to keep blankets on hand for fire victims who need them.  We thought it would be fun to tie a few simple quilts as well as take donations of new or gently used throw-size blankets (per the station's request - they don't have a lot of room to store large blankets).  My friend Kay suggested taking advantage of the after-Christmas sales, so I looked around after the holidays, and sure enough, we were able to purchase several inexpensive throws with our budget.

I also bought a few twin size flannel sheet sets with the intention of turning them into small quilts.  I found them at Shopko, ranging in price from $9.99 to $15.99 per set.

I looked around online, but couldn't find any tutorials.  After some thought this is what I ended up doing:

1 - Cut the flat sheet in half (in the sets I purchased, the flat sheets measured 70" x 100") and trim off all the hems

2 - Cut the elastic out of the fitted sheet, then cut straight up each corner seam

3 - Wash both sheets.

The fitted sheet looked like this after the trim and wash:

Now did you know that's what a fitted sheet looks like without its elastic and corner seams?

We turned the two pieces of the flat sheet into two smaller throw blankets, and chopped off the top and bottom "tabs" of the trimmed and washed fitted sheet and used it to make one slightly larger blanket.  So each sheet set became three blankets.  I found batting for a good deal at the fabric store and bought a whole bolt (25 yards!) of red flannel at half price for the backing and binding.

It was the first time I'd spearheaded a project like this.  I did the washing and most of the prep for the quilts (mainly shopping for fabric and supplies).  Friends helped trim, piece the backing, and pin the "quilt sandwiches" together.  We designated one Saturday as the quilting day, rounded up quilting frames, and women came in and out all morning to help tie the quilts.  (A few stayed all morning -- bless them!) Others took quilts home to bind, and many brought blankets to donate.  Two of my committee members put together a scrumptious hot chocolate bar.

They turned out awesome!  We ended up with six small tied flannel quilts, three from each sheet set, which I thought was impressive.  This is the one I took home to bind:

They're so soft.  Now I want one for myself and so do the kids.  Shopko still has their flannel sheet sets on sale, and if you have one near you, you can have them shipped to the store for free.

We ended up with nearly 30 blankets altogether (including the tied quilts) and I'm so happy with how the whole event turned out.  It's the little things, but every time I went to the fabric store I was able to find exactly what I needed at a great price.  I had just enough help to get the quilts finished and also a few neat experiences along the way.  It was really pretty cool to be a part of this service project.

Other notes from the project I want to remember -

- One packaged twin batting (72 x 90) cut in half was sufficient for the two smaller quilts; one whole packaged twin batting was used for the larger quilt made from the fitted sheet
- We used 2" binding strips and a slightly less than 1/2" seam allowance on the binding
- An easier finish would be to cut either quilt top or bottom slightly smaller and wrap the edges to bind