Don's Old Jeans

Enough years ago that I'm not sure how many, my friend Shirley gave me a giant trash bag full of her husband's old jeans.  They sat around for a long time in that room, before that room was transformed by my lovely sisters into The Fabric Shoppe.  At that time, they were taken out of the bag, and put onto the bottom shelf in one of the beautiful cabinets my sisters bought for the room.  And finally, a few months back, when I was looking for some fabric to use in a quilt, I took some of the jeans out & started cutting them up.

I wasn't exactly sure what sort of quilt I wanted to do, until I began wielding my rotary cutter.  Since Don was on the thin side, I could only get a couple blocks from each pair that was 8" square, then more at 6".  Plus every single pair had a hole worn in the front thigh of the right leg!  Only the right leg......I think that's where the remote control rested....  Anyway, I decided that I would make my first rag quilt using the jeans blocks.  I think I had cut up maybe 4 or 5 pairs when ---- squirrel!!  Oops!  Lost focus, once again, and the jeans & squares became  P.I.G.S. (Project In Grocery Sack)

Fast forward to October.  I tripped over the jeans P.I.G.S. and decided to take it with me to my quilt class on Tuesday night & continue cutting.  Then, I actually got out the graph paper & made a plan!

I used two blues & the white just for reference, so I could see the design better, it's all used jeans.  It will have the 8" squares (finished at 7") in the center, then two different sizes of coping strips so that the 6" (5" finished) squares will fit easily around the outside.  I'm using 1/2" seam allowances for the rag effect, except that I will need to piece the coping strips, so where they are joined I've decided to put the seams on the inside & not rag them.

I made a trip to M&L Fabric in Anaheim the next week & bought at 4 different flannels for the back.  This puppy is going to be heavy, but it will be living in No. California & it's cooler up there. 

plain, solid light blue flannel

light blue w/ paw prints

This blue plaid is a bit darker than it shows in the photo



Black w/lt. blue dots



The next Tuesday, I managed to get all the flannel squares cut up too.  I'm on a roll now!!



Please ignore all the stuff around the blocks, it's my desk at work....



Now they're ready to be matched up & sewn together with a big X.  Hooray!  But will the quilt be finished in time to give it away at Christmas?  Or will it ~ squirrel!!!

To be continued...