A happy box arrived from the mailman this week, my project for the Fall 2010 issue of Stitch Magazine. I wanted to do a denim quilt for their "Discover Denim" section in this issue, repurposing cast off denim jeans, and thankfully the editors loved the idea. Using the millions of shades and washes that denim jeans come in these days, I came up with the Facets quilt.
I was going for an less traditional, slightly more modern patchwork feel, and hopefully that's what I got. The facets are created the play of the light, medium, and dark shade denim shades (these were so fun to pick out at the thrift store). The construction is a combination of squares and half square triangles, easy for someone with even a little quilting experience.
The darker denim shades create a zig-zag effect going across the quilt. I really like the way those dark grays look with the darker blues.
A part that you can't see in the magazine (which is actually one of my favorite parts of the quilt) is the solid cornflower blue flannel backing. It felt very fun to have a surprise color on the back. The binding is dark blue flannel. You see, while I was making this quilt I got all melancholy, thinking about some kids I know who were headed off to college this fall. I was thinking that a quilt like this would be a great bed cover for those standard dormroom-issue beds. The flannel would be warm (important in my mind, because my dorm rooms were always either too cold or too hot, and very drafty), and it would be so fun to incorporate the child's favorite outgrown jeans, even details from the jeans (like maybe stylishly patchwork knees?). As my mind wanders when I construct quilts, I tend to make up little scenarios like this...silly...
And because I would never ask you to quilt through layers of denim, and I wanted to add some surface interest, I tied this quilt in the centers of the lighter sections with worsted wool yarn in 2 colors of gray. When the quilt is washed, the wool felts up nicely, further securing the ties.
There are some other wonderful projects made by Erin, Melissa, Beki, and others. I'm actually thinking hard about making the cover project by Kevin Kosbab, I really love it.
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I have been distracted this week by kids starting school, carpool set ups, soccer practices, attempts at creative lunch ideas, our upcoming weekend garage sale, and trying my damnedest to sit us all down at the dining room table for dinner each evening. The other day Peter cracked a simple joke that sent me into a puddle of tears I never saw coming. Whoa! I guess I had more on my mind than I realized. But today it feels like things are evening out. We are good. We are lucky. So so lucky. Thank you all for your nice comments this week and checking in with me. Next week I start redoing the dining room. Care to join in and see the progress?
