Denim Quilt

When I was a teenager, my mom made some denim blankets for my cousins for Christmas. She spent hours on them (she one for each of the 4 kids in my aunt's family). She would work on them at night after we went to bed. When Christmas Eve rolled around, my parents handed us each a huge box and told us we could open them before we went to bed. They all sounded a little different when we shook them. We had no idea what they were. We were pleasantly surprised when we opened them to find that she had also made the 4 of us denim quilts. (My mom had put baby food jars of buttons in a couple of the boxes so that the presents all sounded different.) She made 8 quilts! Her poor fingers! Two of them looked exactly like two of the quilts she made for my cousins, and the other two were different. She told me that she had to work on the 2 different ones after we went to sleep, so she had lots of late nights. She even took them to my grandma's house to tie them so we wouldn't see them. Very sneaky!

That quilt has been very loved. It was used as my bed spread from that time until I got married. It was used for picnics and other outings. It was made using some acid wash jeans. (Just for future reference, don't make a denim quilt out of acid wash jeans. They don't last.) Lately it has been used on my sons' beds when their bed spreads were in the wash. It is falling apart. All of the squares made of acid wash jeans are shredded. Some of the cotton fabric squares have completely torn off. The binding is worn all the way through the top layer. It was in dire need of being replaced.

Last fall I started checking out our local thrift stores, looking for fabric to make mats for nursery singing time. I found a sheet set that was ugly/cool, and I think I ended up paying $1.50 because the store was having a half off sale. I was going to use it for the mats, but I decided it would make a better quilt. So I pulled out our old worn out jeans, bought some denim skirts (which happened to be Ralph Lauren and Girbaud brands) and a HUGE pair of woman's jeans (I have seriously never seen a pair that big in my life), and my new denim blanket was born.

I started cutting it out over General Conference weekend last October. I got it all cut out, but for some reason I never sewed it together. I made a goal to have it finished for our trip to DC in March, but it didn't happen. I finally got the motivation to sew it so we could use it during our trip to Minnesota over Memorial Day, and I finally got it finished just as we drove up to my sister-in-law's house in Minnesota. I mean I literally sewed the last stitch on the binding as we got to her house. Talk about perfect timing!

The decided to have a little bit of fun with this quilt. I cut lots of pockets out of the denim I used (at least 2 front pockets and 6 back pockets). I added lots of seams, a hammer loop from some carpenter jeans, and even managed to get a square with the tiny Ralph Lauren tag still attached to the pocket (I am adding a picture of that below). I wanted this to be a fun and interesting quilt.

I bought some batting at JoAnns when it was on sale, but when I got it laid on the quilt back, I found that it was thin and wimpy. I didn't have time to get new stuff, so I used it anyway. I'm really disappointed with that part. My old denim quilt is a nice, heavy weight. This one feels paper thin. I wish I would have had a better bat to put in it. Oh well. I think for my next quilt I am going to try a bamboo or cotton bat. I have never used anything but polyester batting, so I am interested to see what the other stuff is like.

I usually use quilt frames to tie my quilts, but I don't have any, and I didn't really have time or space to do it that way, anyway. I laid the back on my kitchen floor (it barely fit!) and taped it down, then laid the batting on top of that, then put on the top. I pin basted it with almost 100 safety pins. To tie it, I just laid it on my living room floor and went to work. It was actually kind of nice to not have to stop to roll the quilt when I got too far in.

Over all I am really happy with this quilt. I think it has the best binding I have ever done (and I have done a lot of them). It is a good neutral color, so my boys don't have to feel like they have a girly quilt on their bed. And it is big enough that it could almost cover our queen size bed. (I think the sheet set was a double.) Ready for some pictures?


I hope this quilt gets used and loved as much as my last one.