I recently made a small doll quilt with some challenge fabric from the Jane Austen Group I belong to. It turned out very cute and colorful. But it seemed a bit too bright for me. I wanted it to look a little bit older and maybe a bit more used. The Log Cabin pattern kind of calls for that look, I think. So what to do?

I had already made the quilt, so dying the fabric pieces was out. Maybe I could tea dye the whole quilt! Why not!

I got a pot big enough to fit the whole quilt into and filled it with water almost to the top, leaving room for the quilt. Brought the water to a boil and added my tea bags. As it happened, I only had one bag of regular tea. The rest of the bags were herbal tea. Wasn’t sure if that would work, but what the heck.

Turned off the heat and left the 7 bags of tea to steep for about five minutes. While the tea was steeping, I soaked the quilt in cool water in the sink and wrung out the excess. After the five minutes, I added it to the tea mixture in the pot and let it soak for 30 minutes.

I removed the tea bags when I put the quilt in. One source I read said to leave the bags in if you want a more mottled look.

Then I took the quilt back to the sink for another cool water bath to rinse out all the extra tea water. Finally I laid it on a soft towel to dry. That took about a day.

The little quilt now looks just as I pictured it – a little toned down, a little old and a little used. I don’t think it could look any better!