Denim

[Amy in Ames]

I have tubs and tubs of denim. Have any of you ever LA quilted a denim quilt? Could you please share some pictures? I have someone that wants me to quilt her denim quilt and not sure if I should. Please advise

[BethDurand]

I've done several quilts with denim. 3 were t-shirt quilts with dad's jeans and/or flannel shirts to make the borders. Another one was made up of just dad's jeans. This one was queen sized, and the customer was just barely over 5 feet tall. She intended to sleep under it, but I don't know how she'd ever get out of bed in the morning!

In asnwer to your question, it works fine for quilting on the longarm. I would do your quilting pattern free hand so that you can avoid the bulkier seams. When I pieced these quilts, I cut off the flat fell seams for the most part. On the one for the petite woman, we left some of the pockets from the jeans on, and then I just avoided quilting over those areas.

Have a good time with it, and prepare to build up some muscles just carrying the fabric around. I did use batt in my quilts, specifically warm and natural.

Have fun.

[mrsbishwit]

I have done several of these for customers this past year. The customers did all of the piecing I just did the quilting.

Of course not one did it like the other.

The one that worked out the best was just a simple 6" squares that were alternated with flannel squares. She used a 1/2" seam allowance and pressed the seam open to help reduce bulk. She used flannel for the backing and hobbs 80/20 for the batting. I did a basic meandering on it. The quilt was a twin size but very heavy when finished.

The others that I have done were nightmares, do to all of the sqs being denim, some still with the flat felled seam in the sq and pieced using 1/4" seams pressed to one side and a denim backing! I no longer will accept denim quilts, too much of a hassel and hard on the back, puttin them on and off the machine. My machine had no problem quilting them, but I did, lol

[sspingler]

I've done several also. Make sure whatever pattern you use, you use a size 20 needle and a thicker thread.

I've done crazy quilts, rail fence, log cabin and charm quilts.

[Lynne in Iowa]

Is it possible to do denim without the batting on the machine? Our quilt-ladies at church tie them and don't use batting because they are so heavy. They usually alternate the denim with flannel or a heavy cotton.

[Dave-Jane]

Hi There, I've just completed a large denim quilt and had great success! Some used denim and some new all mixed together. The quilt was sewn with half inch seams and presented some large obstacles to sew across. I moistened and flattened the extra large humps and bumps prior to each row which made them flexible and easier to handle. I also raised the hopping foot up to the height I needed which happened to be about the thickness of a nickel. I S.I.D.'d the entire quilt and used 100% wool batting with Moda backing fabric. The thread was a poly-core high strength thread (A&E Thread-www.amefird.com), which worked well. I used a standard 4.0 needle. The quilt was so heavy when completed you could put your kids to bed in a snowdrift and have no worries about them getting cold or trying to escape as the quilt would hold them down! LOL. Not that bad, but it had some heft-17lbs shipping weight. I used patterns that were sized to just skirt the folded over seams in the sandwich and had no problems. The friendship star area was a 3/4 inch meander and I plowed through the seams slowly and had no problems. The S.I.D. was a little tough, but if you went with the direction ie.., left to right and back to front, that the machine was meant to sew you could keep the needle straight and not have problems. The thread pulling in this direction helped. Shift the Millie into 4 wheel drive and go for it, nice and slow! My front mounted laser bracket also helped tremendously as it lights up the exact location for the S.I.D especially when the denim colors were very close, (available on my website). Oh, the thread tension had to be adjusted to the speed you went and the thickness of the areas you were sewing, not a lot though. Any questions please ask anytime- thanks and good luck---Dave B.

denim quilt

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4322288/DCP_1327.jpg Back of quilt

[wnott]

Back when I was still 'green' I made a T-shirt quilt for DH & used his old jeans for sashing...bad idea...broke about a dozen needles before it was done. This was when I was on a Grace frame with a Viking DM but I made up my mind never to do that again! I now save those old jeans for braided purse handles and will only quilt NEW denim.