Denim quilt for our family picnics
A denim quilt with a lot of memories
I have been hoarding my jeans for more than 10 years, adding more, in the hope of making someday my denim quilt. Finally last year in spring I guess I had enough pieces to make a whole picnic quilt out of clothing fabrics.
I have used almost 10-12 pairs of jeans, pajamas, old shirts, men’s underwear, other types of trousers and our beautiful memories of using all these clothes. Our comings, our goings, in different countries, in different lives.
Quilt process
Preparation: Finally these clothes came out of the box…[my box of (s)crap I call it, with types of fabrics that are not quilting cottons or that are there for other unknown reasons]. They were washed, cut, carefully ironed and at last cut in 6 inch squares.
Assemblage: I randomly sew together the squares, making sure to have a certain finished size.
Quilting: I tried tying the quilt (again for the first time), as it was huge and heavy bulked in order to regularly quilt it. I used blue yarn and a knitting needle to penetrate through all those layers.
Quilt dimensions: 84 x 72 inches
Materials
As I said before I used 10-12 pairs of jeans, pajamas, old shirts, men’s underwear, other types of trousers and some leftover scraps of heavy weight cottons.
Binding: An also heavy weight cotton fabric with red stripes. It gave the entire quilt true life. It is my favorite part from the whole quilt. I machine bound this one…of course!
Backing: And that backing!!! An old IKEA heavy-weight fabric, combined with some more denim fabrics.
Batting: no batting used. I didn’t use batting, as it was already super-heavy and bulky, and it was always meant to be used only as a picnic quilt. I hope I didn’t do this the wrong way.
Date made: March 2017 – 29.3.2018
We photographed the quilt in a beautiful playground in a nearby village. And with the help of a couple of friends, and of Orestis, they were particularly satisfying. I expect more photos as we get to use this quilt quite often!
Thank you for reading, have a nice weekend, and don’t forget to stop by my Instagram account @zarkadia to keep track on what I’m doing and maybe say hi once in a while!
Linking to: Main Crush Monday, Finished or not Friday, Let’s bee social, Wednesday Wait Loss, Confessions of a fabric addict, Midweek makers, TGIFF (hosted by Lisa in Port Hope)
Modern quilts by Zafiro Vaxevanidou
Zarkadia Quilting Co. is a home-based company that focuses on making special and unique quilts that hug and caress. Quilts are love, tenderness, warmth and cure. Enjoy and be inspired by this art form and know yourself in the process.
19 Comments
Rebecca Grace
I have been hoarding MY old jeans, too — in hopes that I can squeeze into them again someday! Hah! 🙂 Love your denim quilt. Great job. Backing and binding are perfect, too — this will make a fabulous and very sturdy picnic blanket.
Vera
I like the funky back 🙂 Congrats on handy finish!
Zafira
Thank you Vera for your visit!
KatieQ
It’s great when you have a fun backing fabric that coordinates so well with the front of the quilt. This is a quilt anyone would enjoy using. Thanks for the inspiration.
Zafira
Yes, sometimes I like the backing of this quilt more than the front…
Denise
WOW. i love this! I have a (s)crap box of my dh work jeans I have been collecting. The plan is to make a quilt as you go denim cathedral window. I’m thinking red bandana fabric or his old camo tshirt’s paired with the denim.
Zafira
Won’t be the most difficult quilt to make in the whole world??? Denim is really tough to manipulate!! You really are brave Denise.
Lisa in Port Hope
This is a testament to the beauty which is found in simplicity. It’s wonderful that you are able to have these memories close to you throughout fun family activities in the summer. Thanks for linking to TGIFF!
Zafira
Thank you for visiting Lisa, and thank so much for the great linkup!
Jenny Benton
Such a great achievement, I know sewing denim can be very heavy. Your picnic quilt is already full of memories and you are sure to add many more each time you and the family use it.
Zafira
Yes it was very heavy, but I managed to tie it on my cutting table, so no harm done. Thank you for visiting Jenny, so nice to read your comment!
Tu-Na Quilts
Lovely!!! I’ve saved some actually a lot of denim jeans in lots of colors to make a picnic quilt too. I haven’t set aside a time to do so but should now after seeing yours. It turned out just lovely!!
Zafira
I am surely going to hoard some more jeans to make a half square triangle quilt out of jeans. This would be a challenge! Thank you for visiting Karen!
Preeti
The quilt is perfect for summer picnics but your quilt model is handsome for all year round modeling 🙂
Zafira
Thank you Preeti so much! He surely has been very helpful!
Lisa
This worked out really wonderfully. I love the red striped binding.
Zafira
Thank you Lisa! I love seeing your comment!
Gail
Great picnic quilt! Cute quilt model, too!
Zafira
Thank you for visiting Gail!