Jean Quilting

For quite some time old jeans piled up in our guest room closet. Jeans that have holes, are too small, or are just too worn out to wear have been stacked and mentally labeled... "Do something with these."

Near the end of last year I decided that it was time that I actually do something with these. I got to work deciding what I would use them for. I decided that I would love a warm heavy jean quilt to snuggle up with in the winters. I made up a pattern that I thought would be fun but very simple, and got to work cutting up pairs of jeans.

I determined that I want my quilt to be about 90x96 inches. I did the math and checked it twice (or more like 10 times) and determined that I would need 240 6.5x6.5 inch squares to get the size I wanted. I got to work cutting up what seemed like a million squares. I found that cutting the squares 6.5 inches by 6.5 inches allowed me to get the most squares possible out of each pair of jeans. I used 1/4 inch seam allowances to sew the blocks together. This gave me a finished dimension of 6 inch squares.

After I spent what seemed like an eternity cutting up squares the next step was to lay them out and make sure that all the squares from a pair of jeans weren't too close together.

I then began sewing together row by row and the quilt began to feel more and more complete. After a few hours of pinning and sewing I had finally finished the top. This was only about 6 months after I had started.

After a few more weeks my sweet friend Lindsay helped me find some quilting frames, put up the quilt, and tie it. It finally felt like one little step at a time I was completing my project. At this point it was July and I had started cutting up jeans the previous November, but by golly my quilt would be done in time for the hottest month of the year!

After we got it tied it was time to bind the quilt. I decided that for the binding I would roll over the excess flannel from the back to the front and then do a decorative stitch. So, it was back to pinning and sewing.

A few hours later my quilt that had been a work in progress for far to long was complete! I was in love and itching for some chilly weather to test it out. Thankfully the Palmer's had us up to the cabin and we brought our new jean quilt along to keep us warm.

I would like to say a BIG thank you to the following:
 -The Lottermoser's for the birthday gift card to Joann's that I was able to use to buy flannel for the backing.
- Lindsay Lou for helping me dig up some quilting frames and tie my quilt.
-Momma Cheree for cheering me on through my entire project.
-Mdill for putting up with my crazy quilt mood swings. (I was pretty cranky during several portions of this project.)

Here are the items I used to complete my quilt:
240 - 6.5 inch squares of jeans, I would say I used about 15 or 16 pairs of jeans.
6 yards of flannel for the back.
1 bag of queen size light weight batting
1 bolt of turquoise yarn to tie the quilt.

A very thrifty Halloween decoration...

A week ago I decided that our apartment needed to feel more homey and a lot less like a pit stop until we are onto our next place. I was a woman on a mission. With Halloween coming I thought I would find some inexpensive ways to add a little Halloween spirit home. The three things I wanted to accomplish were: 

#1 Make cute, but inexpensive decorations. 

#2 Be ok with making some decorations that I could throw away. Our temporary location calls for temporary decoration. 

#3 Have fun figuring something out.    

So, I did a quick google search on Pinterest for Halloween crafts and I found this post.  And I got the idea to make a few jack 'o lanterns using items from around the house. I wanted 3 pumpkins and I wanted them all to be different sizes.  

Here is what I used: 

- One roll of toilet

- A can of Oats

- A package of rice cakes.  

I then rolled each item in some orange tissue paper and made some stems using some green tissue paper and twine. I cut out some jack 'o lantern faces from black card stock and glued them on. They turned out really simple and cute and have added just the right amount of festiveness to our small temporary apartment.