Denim Quilt

Denim quilt

Part of this top came from a co-worker's mother. Ethel was beginning to downsize her collection and the start of a denim quilt was amongst the fabric pieces. It was too small to use as is and I had to figure out a way to add to it. Fortunately, between mom and I there was plenty of denim fabric to repurpose. I used pieces from several pairs of jeans that mom shared with me along with some pieces that my friend Nancy had given me to make two rows of stacked coins. This widened the quilt top by about 19 inches.

These three columns each have a decorative seam with red thread running down the center.

Lainie helped me cut coins for the middle columns

Pressing seams open

Squares meet coins

There was one pair of pants from Nancy that had a bleach stain on them. I debated whether to cut around the stain, but then decided that I really did like the look of it and ended up putting it in the center of one of the coins.

Finished top

I basted the quilt on my back patio and used a flannels sheet from mom as the batting. The backing is pieced from quilting cotton that also came from Ethel.

I don't have any industrial machines so I was very excited about sewing on this one

For the quilting, I took this quilt with me to visit Pat in Iowa. She let me use her Consew 210 and that machine had no problems at all with the multiple layers of denim at the seams. I did straight lines 3 inches apart on the coin columns and 2 7/8 in. apart on the columns with squares. There are no seam guides on the Consew 210, so I made a few marks along the proposed lines and then estimated what would be straight.

Connecting the purple pen marks

At the table with a view

Quilting was done in a blue denim thread

Pat suggested basting the edges so that the layers wouldn't slip because originally I was planning to bring the quilt home before making and putting on binding. Before I got things packed up though, Pat offered some blue bias tape for binding and it was the perfect color. So, I trimmed the edges and used the Consew 210 again to finish the binding.

Binding is done

These finished pictures were taken when I got back home. 

In the garden

Backing is two pieces of cotton

Looks inviting for a picnic

You can see red stitching and some blue quilting lines