Re-purposed Jean Quilt

So this isn't finished yet but I feel like I need to post something with an update.  This week has been pretty hectic.  Keith and I are celebrating our 10th Anniversary tomorrow and we are going to London to celebrate.  I have been trying to get things squared away at work, the house clean for Grammy so that she won't suffocate in dog hair when she gets here.  I finished the girls laundry to hopefully eliminate any wardrobe related tantrums during our week away.  The list of "to-dos" gets longer by the moment, locate passport, rain boots, buy an umbrella and so on...



I took pics of our baked ravioli dinner... well the beginning process and then my husband took it out, served it up for me (thank you) but failed to realize I was in the middle of a blogging a moment....

With all of that nonsense, I bring you the other project I have been working on this week.  It is the "Jean Quilt circa 2002" from my 2012 Pump It or Dump It list...

In 2002, I started creating this quilt without directions just ideas - Internet was around then for all of you 20 year olds but you really didn't hop on it (or at least I didn't) to find crafting ingenious-ness like today.  It was used for maybe "my space" - what is that???  and yahoo-groups.  LOL   So I started off with a bunch of jeans that were worn and didn't fit as well ( I think maybe too much wedding cake and up late at night vanilla shakes with my newlywed husband).  I got fairly far on it.  I attached the squares together and purchased the   flannel but I ran out of jeans to make it just a little bit longer.    I really needed two more rows to make it wide enough, twin blanket size.

When it is all done, I will have used approximately 6 adult jeans and two pairs of children's (size 7) jeans.  The squares are 5"x6.5" when cut, leaving an allowance for .5" fringe.  The entire quilt will measure 55"x80" and will contain 140 jean squares.  





With my 8 year old, she falls down and rips a whole in her jeans, knit pants at least every other week.  I have found myself with once again too many jeans that really can't be sent to the goodwill but have enough life in them to be upcycled into something else.







So last week, I pulled her out (the quilt, not my daugher) and took a look at where I was at and whether or not, I finally had enough jeans.  Tokie assisted with laying it out on the floor.  He was very inquisitive about the whole pom pom thing... and I bet you are wondering what the hell??? right now too!   I decided that I want to embroider flowers randomly on the quilt as well.  So I laid out red pom poms to get a sense of placement.  I wanted to visually see the splash of color.

It is at this point that I will say - I wish I would have planned the quilt 10 years ago to do a titrated color look - how awesome would that be.  I am way too lazy to rip this sucker apart and do that but going from light to dark would have been awesome!  If I did that, we would  have to fast foward to 2022 with me still working on this and I need to bust this quilt out this year!

After I placed the pom-poms, I added a piece of masking tape to mark my squares that deserve further attention.

Because of the mere size, weight of the quilt, I used an embroidery hoop to help keep things nice and tight while I embroidered.

Here are some of the flowers I have been working on this week.  Each square takes about an hour.  I have done it in the van while waiting for dance to let out, Sunday night movie time with the family and so on.  I am not following a specific pattern just allowing the thread to do the drawing as my friend, Theresa, showed me over at Truly Tree - literally she showed me in person... how awesome is that!!  Go visit her blog and see the cute things she is making for her "nature" nursery... so cute!

Hopefully, next week after the jet lag wears off, I'll post a finished quilt and my friend, Molly, of whom this has been destined for will enjoy it for years to come!  (Sorry it has taken 10 years).

I would like to note that upcycling-repurposing is awesome and super green.  That said, if you have larger size jeans that are in decent shape please consider donating them directly to a shelter or non--profit agency that works with men and women that are homeless.  There is such a need for larger sized, practical clothing in the shelter environment.  

If you try this, link back and thanks for keeping something out of the landfill and thinking green.