Jean Quilts – Time to Quilt

Memory Quilts

I searched the archives and found my original posts about a pair of quilts I’d made for the sons of a friend who’d passed away. One of her closest friends asked last night to see a photo of them again.

Making these two quilts was challenging, not because of the piecing or quilting, but due to their emotional significance. They were made from the jeans of a friend who had died from brain cancer. Her close friend gave me the jeans to make quilts for her two sons. It was an honor to make them and knowing how sentimental she could be, I think Patti would have loved them.

You can read more about them in this original post here and here. The brief instructions on how to make the quilt are in this post.

It’s one of the many posts I’ve had to look for in the archives and republish. It takes a few minutes to reformat them but I’ll work on a few at a time, at least the ones worth repeating. 🙂

Patti absolutely loved this song! I remember weekend nights sitting around a fire singing it to the top of our lungs, and loving every minute of it. ♥
(After a long day of watching our husbands drive the four wheel drive trucks in the mud. Laughing at the wimps who were too chicken to try it. Then, spending the afternoon pulling out those who did try but didn’t make it to the other side. Those were the days.)

How to make a jean quilt

(Originally posted February 5th, 2021)

I originally had another denim stained glass pattern in mind but, our friend was small so I wouldn’t have been able to cut any 12″ squares (unless I left some leg seams in them which I thought might make the quilt even heavier and not as comfortable to use).

I saw the idea for this quilt on The Flemings Nine blog. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern for it. Stained glass quilts are pretty popular these days so a quick search will give you plenty of free blocks patterns to choose from. Just make sure you look the pattern over before you begin cutting the pieces so you can adapt it to the size pieces you’re able to cut.

Alternately, you can just check out the cutting info below for the quilts I made. I deliberately chose a stained glass design so none of the denim pieces are sewn together. Having that strip of regular black quilting cotton between them made would make the seams less bulky and the quilt more comfortable to use.

These quilts were composed of 48 blocks each and measure 60″ x 80″ finished.

I’m included photos I took as I was constructing the second one along with a breakdown of the size pieces I used.

Press all seams toward the black fabric.

Each block denim:

5″ x 10″
5″ square
5″ x 2 1/2″
(2) 2 1/2″ squares

Each block black:

1″ x 10″
(2) 1″ x 5″
1″ x 2 1/2″

Sashing:

1″ x 10″ between blocks (40 pieces for this quilt) and 1″ x length of finished rows. The blocks should measure 10″. Because several of the jeans I used were stretch denim, I did have to square the blocks up a bit before joining them.

If you’re using women’s jeans which often have a little stretch in them, measure the completed rows and use the average measurement before you cut the sashing strips to sew between the rows.

I used 3 1/2″ binding strips so the outside edge would be the same 1/2″ finish as the rest of the black pieces in the quilt.

Click on the photos to view a larger image.

Begin by sewing black strips to the block pieces but, only sew them on half of the 2 1/2″ squares.

Sew 2 1/2″ squares with the black strip to a 2 1/2″ without the black.

Sew the black edge of the 2 1/2″ x 5″ strip to the squares.

Sew the black edge of the 5″ square to the previous unit.

Add the black edge of the 10″ x 5″ square to the side of the previous unit. Construct all of your blocks with the pieces positioned in the same way.

Next, lay your blocks out in pairs rotating one block 90°. You can see the top block has been rotated one clockwise turn to the right.

Sew a 10″ black strip to the lower edge of the top block. Sew the bottom block to the top unit.

My rows are 6 blocks across (3 pairs of blocks laid end to end).

Add a 10″ black strip between each pair of blocks.

DO NOT add a black strip to the beginning or to the end of each row.
The wide black binding will complete the design.

And they’re done!

(Originally posted February 5, 2021)

The two quilts for the sons of our friend that passed away in November are finished. I’m happy with the way they turned out and so grateful to her best friend for bringing the jeans to me and helping to prepare them to sew into quilts. (Well, one of her best friends… Patti was a best friend to everyone that knew her.)

She loved to repurpose things and find creative uses for them, long before HGTV made it cool. I think she’d have loved seeing her jeans get made into quilts for her boys. ♥

I posted the instructions on how to make this quilt here.

Quiet time

(Originally posted December 27th, 2020)

Last night when it was time to sit and relax, I worked on “de-boning” a bag of jeans I was given to make a quilt (hopefully two quilts) for the family of a friend that passed away last month.

This Christmas wasn’t normal for a lot of us trying to socially distance as much as we can. But, looking at a pair of jeans in my lap… jeans once worn by a friend, reminded me how important it is to savor every moment, even the imperfect ones.

I have a lot of projects going on but, these quilts need to be moved up to the top of the list.