Denim Rag Quilt

Here is a picture of the denim rag quilt that I made for our master bedroom. I collected my friends' and family's old jeans for months when I decided I was going to make this quilt. Then I cut them all up and realized that I was still short. Way short. So I went to the thrift store and bought lots of jeans for cheap so I could finish it.

This quilt took me over a year to complete because I kept losing steam and stopping. I even killed my sewing machine. I thought I had a good quality, sturdy sewing machine until I made this quilt. Ha!

My sewing machine has been repaired, but it'll never be the same again. I can't tell you how surprised I was to find out that "they don't make Singers the way they used to."



This was my first rag quilt so there are lots of mistakes. Mathematical mistakes especially. You would think with me minoring in math in college that that would not be a problem. Well I'm here to tell you that it is. I especially suck at topology. I've had many sewing mishaps from my topology handicap alone. Peanut Head could entertain you for hours with them, but I'll just tell you about two especially frustrating ones.

First, I made a mobius vest. When I sewed the lining and the vest front together it wasn't matched up, so half of it was always inside out, no matter what I did. Hence, my mobius vest. Peanut Head was thoroughly entertained by this, and he tried to explain it to me, but to this day, I don't understand how it was topologically possible.

Next, I made sock pockets on a pair of muscle pants for my husband. Remember those M.C. Hammer type pajama looking things from the 80s? Well, in my defense they are basically huge squares of material that you sew together so it is impossible to tell where the top of the pants and the bottom of the pants are when sewing them together. Really. Soooooo, when it was time to put the pockets on, they got put on the bottom of the legs. Understandable mistake.

Peanut Head laughed hysterically for hours.



Anyway, back to the quilt, my biggest mistake was in making the quilt blocks waaaaaay too small. I made them six inches square and they should have been eight inches square. Or is it nine? I should check before I attempt to make another one.

With the smaller blocks, it meant that I had to make a lot more quilt blocks. And the quilt is bulkier than it had to be. And heavier. Really heavy. It was so bulky that I had to wash it at the laundromat in an industrial triple load washer, and it was still a tight fit. Then it took three hours to dry in a large capacity dryer and still wasn't 100% dry. Plus, I had to sit up against the door the entire time because the weight of the quilt kept knocking the dryer door open and stopping the dryer. Boy was that fun.



In spite of all that, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Please don't look at my messy nightstands.


The back of the quilt is flannel so it's super cozy and warm for our cold Idaho nights. And heavy, did I mention that?