Tuesday, June 27, 2017

AHIQ 2nd quarter finish - 1st post of the day

I posted this quilt last week when I had finished it, but I am making another post for the AHIQ fourth Tuesday of the month posting on both Kaja's Sew Slowly and Ann's Fret Not Yourself blogs. This quilt started out as this - just a pile of my neighbor's jeans

Because they put their house up for sale I needed to get the quilt done for Father's Day instead of for his birthday which is in November. My thought process was to use the backs of the jeans for the main body. Then to follow the guidelines of using two different blocks in a quilt for this quarter's AHIQ challenge I would add a section of blocks to lengthen the quilt. For the blocks I wanted to make simple, large scale blocks because denim is heavy and I wanted as few seams as possible. The improv striped blocks and drunkard path blocks would work. I used the fronts of the jeans for making them.

I free motion quilted it and made the triple loop design large or otherwise the quilt would be to stiff and firm. Here is the back.

It was hard trying to quilt around the pockets, but I got as close to them as possible. I finished the quilt off with a batik striped binding. I used Warm & Natural for the batting, Essentials in the bobbin, and Auriful for the top thread. I had saved most of the labels and used those to cover holes in the jeans and for decoration. The quilt ended up 74" x 82".

8 comments:

  1. two quilt
    Designs that lengthen each section are wonderful. What thread and weight did you use? Thanks for pointing out how the enlarged quilt design keeps it more drapeable. And thanks for joining AHIQ!

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  2. This is improv at it's best! Using what you have and working within
    the challenge coming up with a practical and unique quilt.
    Thanks for sharing.

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  3. What a wonderful quilt with meaning. Love the way you worked it out.

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  4. That is a really smart way to use the different shades of denim, but simply. The Quilting looks great, just enough but not fussy. Congratulations on a job well done and a true Improv!

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  5. You already I know I think this is wonderful. I think that keeping the denim pieces large works aesthetically as well as from a practical point of view. Thanks for linking up with AHIQ!

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  6. Love the look of the denim! Your drunkards path blocks are wonderful looking in the different faded colors.:)

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  7. Great denim quilt! Using the whole lengths of pants was fun and then breaking up with the pieced bits for interested was a good balance! I've been saving denim scraps I think you've inspired me to dig them out and see what's in that basket! cheers!

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  8. This is a lovely way of using up old jeans. I recently threw out a whole pile because I couldn't think of a good way of using them whithout ending up with hundreds of bulky seams. Too soon! Now I shall have to start collecting again; you've given me the answer: think big!

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