Saturday, December 25, 2010

Patchwork Jean Quilt

Grandma Hodgen was amazing at quilting and everyone in the family has treasured their quilts they received for high school graduation. She was so thrifty she would transform jeans, khakis, shirts into beautiful quilts. She would always talor it to your likes and add things to make each one unique. My quilt that she made has all the patches from the name brand jeans I had in the 80's and 90's such as Pepe and Z Cavaricci. Incorporating the pockets was always my favorite part of Grandma's quilts, making it perfect to hold the remote while watching TV.


For Christmas this year, I drew my little brother, Brad's name for our family gift swap. Beings that Brad never got a jean quilt from Grandma Hodgen, I decided to make one for him. Even though it's not as great as Grandma would have made, I hope he can cherish it for many years to come.





Taking some old jeans and khaki pants we had kept, I cut the jeans along the seams. From there I cut the jeans into either 4 inch, 8 inch, and 10 inch widths with varying lengths. I then got 1 yard of patterned fabric that helped pulled the blues, browns, and khaki together and interfaced it to help make it the same weight as the jeans. Once I had all the squres cut, I layed out the pieces. Within each row (vertical rows), I then sewed all the pieces together. Once I had the vertical rows completed, I then sewed them together to compete the front. I then basted and finished it up with brown corduroy backing.



As you can see, I think he is enjoying the new quilt!




Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas Aprons

This year I've been trying to make the majority of our Christmas gifts. For my Brother in Law and his Wife, I decided to make matching Christmas Aprons to go along with the crock pot that we gave them this year. The aprons turned out really cute. I used the Amy Butler pattern from her In Stitches book for my sister in law's and a basic simplicity pattern for my brother in law.
They look super cute in the new aprons, I hope they enjoy them this holiday season and many more to come!