Patriotic Denim Camp Quilt

One single pair of red denim jeans in my pile...

...what to do, what to do...

I have been wanting to use them for a long time; last week, I cut them into 6 inch blocks and sketched out a pattern on my graph paper.  At 73 x 83, it is a nice size for a picnic or camping.

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The color pattern was made possible by reversing the bricks to make a consistent light color.  I like the juxtaposition of using old jeans for the quilt, but having a controlled color. The border is made from black jeans.

Here's what the right side of the bricks looked like on the back, it's pretty messy color-wise.

  I quilted it with my trusty "Square Spiral" pattern by Karyn Emmerson.

It works really well on denim blocks.

 I have a whole bolt of this navy with red and white stars, it is used for the binding also.

Once the binding strips are sewn together, I only handle my binding once before I put it on the quilt. The seams get pressed as I press the fold. It drops into a basket on the floor.

Then, this basket goes under my Bernina and the binding goes straight onto the back of the quilt.

I attach it to the back, join it and flip it to the front. Line up the fold exactly on the previous stitching line, move my needle one place to the right and top stitch the entire binding on the front. By moving the needle, you will get a perfect row of stitching on the back also.

If you are interested, a few years ago, I did a binding tutorial here.

Super fast, neat and tidy. 

From this ironing board to this finished quilt took 58 minutes.

As you can see, I didn't make much of a dent in my denim pile...

...and these are all separated pant legs already broken down from the jeans!