Jeans Love

Once the cutting was done this top has come together quite quickly.

I love how the jeans seams show here and there and you can see the wear and tear where our knees have been

An earlier post about this can be found here.

Now I'm putting together the back and pondering how to quilt it. One idea is to use yellow jeans topstitching thread to highlight the darkest and lightest windmill shapes but maybe that will be too busy and distract from the simplicity which is the appeal of this. Feel free to offer an opinion (which may or may not be heeded)!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

Shirt Love

I have been working on this quilt off and on for several months. And it's the first finish in my Q2 goals for the Finish Along. Yay! The collection of materials for this quilt has taken place over several years. I had asked my husband and brother to save their cotton shirts for this project once the collar and cuffs got too scruffy for work wear. The beautiful soft cottons are destined probably for several quilts.

Here's the first which I'm entering in the nick of time for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Fading light and uncharged proper cameras make for less than perfect pics for the time being unfortunately. 

Maybe I can update this post with some better ones in a day or two.

I based it roughly on a Kaffe Fassett design which is conveniently constructed in four panels: asymmetrical left and right panels and a top and bottom panel across the width of the quilt.

I constructed the back from a lovely piece of paisley flannel I've had in my stash for a few years. It was made up to size with some favourite old kids' pyjamas and flannel scraps from another quilt.

I considered calling this quilt Working Style since that seems to be the favoured shirt brand! I left several of the labels in place to allude to the former life of these fabrics.

For the binding I ended up deciding to add two strips of the red I used in the back to echo the few reds in the quilt itself and they provide a nice counterpoint to the more sober Architextures crosshatch which provides the majority of the binding.

I've quilted it in widely spaced lines along the piecing. I may or may not add some red hand quilting in due course?!

 For time saving, although I generally enjoy the hand sewing process to finish, I elected to machine this one in the ditch on the front to catch in the edge of the double fold.

 I can see this one getting lots of use in the cooler months for sitting reading or watching. It's the prototype for a few more quilts using these fabrics and more which keep coming my way :-)

Quilt Stats:

Size 70x75" Total 290"

Cotton Shirts with cotton flannel backing

Bamboo cotton batting

Machine bound and quilted

Auditioning Bindings

The blue crosshatch is nice against the back but quite subtle on the front. 

I like the red but don't have enough for for all the way round and not sure if I want scrappy (perhaps with the navy stripes).

Should I go & hunt for a suitable red or make do?

Ahhh Dilemmas!!?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

Work in Progress

Have been slowly making blocks for my jeans quilt

It's fun to see the pattern emerging. Not sure how big it will be in the end? These are all old jeans we have loved, except the pale teal and striped denim. The teal is from yardage, but the stripes have  been used as a shift dress for my daughter years ago.

I spotted this block while staring at the ceiling in a local concert hall and drew it in my journal when I got home, thinking it might come in handy sometime. Does it have an official name does anyone know?

Found this image here

I made a silly mistake when working out and cutting the size of the pieces, forgetting that I'd need to adjust the length of the longer pieces because there's only one seam in one direction and four in the other, so on my first attempt I didn't end up with a square block. Duh! But was easily solved by taking apart the centre seam and cutting 1" off all four of the longer pieces. It took far longer than it should have for me to work out exactly how much I should cut off, but was quicker once I stopped saying to myself "come on you should be able to do this much more easily"!!

These are the two blocks I've done so far, all present and correct.

Might mean a bit of quilt wrangling but I'm already thinking of quilting this with yellow jeans topstitching thread to highlight the darkest and lightest four panel star/cross shapes.

Meanwhile no progress on quilting the shirt quilt. I have an extra machine now thanks to my mother in law so in theory I can line them up and have two different projects going at once-so to speak, might need to grow extra arms/brain.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced