Friday, July 20, 2012

salt lake city longarm quilter/denim quilt

love quilt finished whole by nanotchka
love quilt finished whole, a photo by nanotchka on Flickr.

I spent this week cutting up my husbands old jeans and shirts for this quilt! I wanted to make a quilt embroidered with the words to a song I had been thinking of alot lately. "have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need? Have I cheered up the sad or made someone feel glad? If not I have failed indeed" This is just one verse that is embroidered with free motion embroidered on patches in the quilt.

I started piecing with traditional seams and decided that I wanted a more frayed, rough look to the quilt so I started lapping some of the seams and brushing them with my wire chenille brush! I loved the frayed/fringed look of the new seams and used that along with the traditional seams throughout the rest of the quilt.

I fused shirt pieces and began cutting free form hearts to applique over my frayed blocks to keep the theme of love in the quilt. The pant pockets were added after the quilt was completely finished.

I wanted to keep the "re-cycled/repurposed" idea of the quilt when I was looking for a backing. I was shopping for a flannel sheet in the department store when I thought of going to the thrift store for something for the back of the quilt. Two thrift stores later I found the perfect bright red knit vintage sheet! My "found" fabric quilt was complete. I'll be taking this quilt to the Restoring Love gathering in Dallas Texas next week! I hope to see you there!

4 comments:

  1. this is really a good idea to recycle old jeans. very nice.

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  2. This looks great Nanette, I too have been saving old jean items (jeans, skirts etc)for years and one day would like to make a couple of jean quilts. Did you hand stitch the words?

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    1. I did the word with freemotion on my sewing machine. I gave this one away but I want to make one for myself next time!

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  3. i love this quilt!!!! i have a large tote of denim and have been looking for just the right project and i think this is it. can you explain a little more about how you did the seaming and the applique. it almost looks like the hearts are done in reverse applique. thanks for any advice/help you can offer.
    cindi

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