Denim

Denim/Flannel Quilt Project gather fabric beg, "borrow", clean out, find old jeans/denim and flannel items. put the word out. (my mom even called my dad on the cell phone on the way to donate a bunch of stuff and made him go through it before passing it on....lol the man who was taking the donations laughed as said "someone must be a quilter", then a week later my mom didn't like the condition of the jeans my dad had on and made him take them off and give them to me r (oflol) dads still saying how mom made him take the pants off his body to donate to this quilt. for the flannel: think baby blankets, flannel sheets, lumberjack shirts, flannel pants.... if all else fails do what I did, for under $10 at WalMar I was able to get a Twin Sheet Set in a natural color flannel. I didn't end up using it but Bethan is, and depending on the size of her quilt I may still end up with enough to back another quilt! IMO you can't buy the fabric thisinexpesively. If you don't like things that don't match up on then don't go with the different plaids, it will drive you nuts! wash & cut I choose to wash everything that wasn't already in my possession in HOT that way all shrinking would be done. cutting: I've cut the squares 6x6. I'dreccomend no smaller than 5x5 but you could go larger if you are so inclined. At 6x6 I averaged 16 squares per pair of jeans. The big deal is make all the squares the same size. You will need one denim for every flannel. NOTE: the easiest way to do this project would be to stick with one color denim and one color/pattern of flannel. it will not be as interesting but it would be the easiest imo. sewing notesScarlet found notes that someone wrote on this projectreccomending to use 1/2" seam allowance. I was not going to do that but when I sat down to the machine it turned out that the 1/2" was the best size to use. I used a shorter stich length that I usually use, something near 1. The reason for that is to assure that the quilt will stay together. Granted I tend towards over kill on stuff like this. With all the fraying I'm afraid that it might fall apart (not likely but hey, I can worry about stuff like that if I want to)
Page 1

Denim

Don't forget that you are working with denim and you will most likely want to use a denim needle (size 16 I think it is) you could try with a smaller needle if you don't have any on hand but in case of problems switch to the correct needle. My guess is one denim needle should get you through the project. thread color: whatever it won't show. if you are concerned about strength then go with a heavy duty thread that is design for jeans. I didn't bother, the way it is constructed and there will not bealot of pull on the seams imo so it shouldn't matter. quilt size: depending on the size of your squares and the seam allowance will depend on the 3 of squares needed. Here are the demensions I use if trying to make a specific size quilt. This is from one of my many quilt books and I'm taking the info from a cheat sheet that I have in my sewing box. Crib Quilt: Small: 30"x45" Large: 40"x60" The rest of thesedemensions include a 9" pillow tuck and are 13" deep. (so if you have a thicker mattress make it bigger) Twin: 65"x97" Double: 80"x97" Queen: 86"x102" Queen/Double: 54"x100" King: 104"x102" We have a Cal. King and I've just made thereg king size but never use the pillow tuck so it works out fine. When you have sewn all the blocks together and completed a final seam along the outside edges to keep everything together then it is time to wash the quilt. The best hint I read/heard from the above links is to do it in a commercial washer. Our washer drains into a utility sink and it over flowed due to all the lint. Be careful. Here are my picts of the completed project. Yes, they are dark but my camera doesn't have a flash.

and here are my final notes: This was a super fast and easy project. A great idea for a first quilt. And it can be free depending on the stuff you can get from family and friends.
Page 2

Denim

You will notice that by using a plaid flannel sheet for the back, the lines don't match up. Personally, that is really bothering me. I would reccomend using something with a small repeated print or a solid so you don't run into that problem. OR useing different plaids so there is no way they can be expected to match up. Hope that covers it. Please post or ask, if I missed anything. And thanks to whoever said they were going to do thow pillows out of this. I think I'm going to do it.

Page 3