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The Final Product

March 10th, 2014

People keep asking to see photos of the quilt I’ve been working on. Now that it’s finished I can finally let you see it. I wanted this quilt to have a really old feel, which it ended up having because the fabric is old. Each piece was cut out by hand with scissors, no rotary cutter involved. Precision was not in the game plan for this quilt, I wanted it to be imperfect.
Quilt 1
This quilt is made out of old pjs. Some of them are very old, old enough that I wore them in college 18 years ago, some of them are mine, some belonged to Mr Chiots. In fact he still has a pair of flannel pants that are a different color but the same pattern as one of the fabrics used in the quilt and I kept threatening to steal his pants to incorporate the fabric in the quilt. In end, I let him keep his comfy pants, they will make it into another quilt in the future. The fabric in this quilt is a mix of cotton flannel and regular cotton, which gives it a great textural quality.
Quilt 2
I used an old flannel sheet as the batting and an old duvet cover for the back. This type of quilt is my favorite, I’m not a fan of the thick cotton batting, I much prefer the weight and thinness of a flannel sheet. I have a few quilts made by my great grandmother and a few other family friends that are like this and they are always my favorites to have on the bed. The only thing I had to purchase for the quilt was thread and a half yard of blue fabric for the binding; now that’s what I call a deal!
Quilt 3
The only thing I purchased for this quilt was a lovely variegated thread for the hand quilting, I love how the colors show through on the red background but isn’t really obvious on the front. The entire quilt was quilted during the winter Olympics, which you know is a big deal for us around here.
Quilt 4
All-in-all, I’m very happy with this quilt. It’s exactly what I was hoping it would be. It will live on one of the twin beds in our guest bedroom, which Dexter found right away. We don’t let the cats in that room, so I’m not quite sure how he managed to get in there! Leave it to the cats to find the best new sleeping spot in the house.
New Quilt
Now on to the next quilt for the other bed!

Do you save old clothing for future sewing projects?

17 Comments to “The Final Product”
  1. Lemongrass on March 10, 2014 at 8:32 am

    This is beautiful! I never throw away old clothing. When we were growing up we saved out old clothing under the mattress. Whenever we need to construct a project we headed to our collection under the mattress. I love using old garments to make new things. I even save old socks to make bags to
    strain my compost teas. I can feel myself being wrapped with your quilt……even here in tropical Grenada.

    Reply to Lemongrass's comment

  2. DebbieB on March 10, 2014 at 8:32 am

    Susy, it’s GORGEOUS!!! I can only imagine how very soft it is, being made out of old pj’s. Well done, you!

    Reply to DebbieB's comment

  3. Nebraska Dave on March 10, 2014 at 8:49 am

    Susy, good job on the quilt. It’s definitely a good way to use up old worn out clothes. I do have a pile of old worn out shirts and jeans but haven’t figured out what exactly to do with them just yet. My first thought was to make some scarecrows for the garden. With spring fast approaching, it won’t be on the priority list until the busy flurry of spring time is over. Yeah, but then I have another 60 feet of garden fence to build and a ground water spring to develop. Those two projects I really do want to get completed this year.

    I made a visit to Terra Nova Gardens on Saturday just to see how it’s faired the winter. It’s still frozen but all of the snow is gone. This is the worst time of the year for me. When the spring warm temperatures are here but the ground is not warm enough to start gardening. It just seems like it takes forever for the soil to warm up.

    Have a great quilting day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  4. Elizabeth OhioThoughts on March 10, 2014 at 8:51 am

    I love this. I’ve been looking on Pinterest at similar ones and was hoping to start one this winter but just been too busy. The colors are my state colors, Ohio, Scarlet and Gray! So I love it even more!

    Reply to Elizabeth OhioThoughts's comment

  5. Sara on March 10, 2014 at 9:05 am

    Ha, I just finished a quilt and every time I had it laid out (basting, measuring, etc) I would return and find the dog on it! Oh well :)

    Yours looks so great, and I bet it is extra soft. I haven’t made one out of clothing (yet) but my latest was almost entirely of extra fabric from my stash. It was fun to get a whole quilt out of leftovers, and to revisit fabric I hadn’t used in years.

    Reply to Sara's comment

  6. whit on March 10, 2014 at 9:32 am

    Gorgeous! It looks so amazing…like an instant antique!

    My daughter is a fan of western shirts, just like my dad. My plan is to marry a few of their western shirts together someday, with a few of my hubbie’s work shirts, and send her off on her “go find yourself” adventure with the memories of the important men in her life. We also save her feisanna shirts for quilting too. There are so many beautiful fabrics out there, I am usually trying to find ways to afford them in small quantities, I’m a sucker for the selvage jelly rolls my local quilt shop throws together…at least the selvages make it a tad more affordable.

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  7. PennyAshevilleNC on March 10, 2014 at 3:33 pm

    That came out beautifully! I love the choices for the color placement, especially the underside pieces for the fold over action. Well done!
    I wanted to try and sew but lost interest so I have tons of scraps around, but no projects completed (waugh, waugh…)

    Reply to PennyAshevilleNC's comment

  8. Kathi cook on March 10, 2014 at 6:41 pm

    I have the pieces cut out to assemble a felted sweater baby quilt but haven’t started sewing them together yet. It will be my first one and I am a little intimidated, but have always wanted to work with recycled sweaters. Your quilt looks perfectly cozy!

    Reply to Kathi cook's comment

  9. Chris on March 10, 2014 at 8:18 pm

    What a beautiful, “old” quilt you made with your scraps. It must be so soft…well your cat thinks so anyway! :) And patriotic too…red, white and blue. It reminds me of folk art…well, I guess it is that indeed too! Artfully, handcrafted…it’s gorgeous!

    Reply to Chris's comment

  10. Wendy on March 10, 2014 at 10:52 pm

    It looks fantastic–definitely cozy! The variegated thread is a nice touch.

    I save any old clothing that I think could be used for something later (which is basically everything except my husband’s work pants). Our diaper wipes made from old flannel sheets and towels are still going strong and will be used for rags after the second baby is done with them.

    I also often make our little boys shirts out of the bigger guys’ old shirts (dad and older brother). The same thing with pants. I’ll be sad when they grow too big for me to re-use fabric this way–guess I’ll just have to move on to quilts! :)

    Reply to Wendy's comment

  11. Jocele on March 10, 2014 at 11:54 pm

    The quilt is lovely! It looks incredibly cozy and would be lovely to snuggle up under it.

    Reply to Jocele's comment

  12. Ilene on March 11, 2014 at 4:57 am

    Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

    Very good use of materials on hand.

    Reply to Ilene's comment

  13. Marcia on March 11, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    Beauty is in imperfections. Cats have a sixth sense about anywhere you don’t want them to go and anything you don’t want them to lay on. But then they look so darn cute doing so.

    Reply to Marcia's comment

  14. Margie Clyde on March 11, 2014 at 2:40 pm

    Your quilt turned out so nice! My favorite ‘re-use’ is to use old flannel sheets to back baby quilts-so cozy! I love quilting, and am anxious to start another one. Enjoy reading your blog.

    Reply to Margie Clyde's comment

  15. Deairdre Miller on March 11, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    What a beautiful quilt. I love the way you used up stuff you had on hand. I am getting better at that, but still need more practice!

    Reply to Deairdre Miller's comment

  16. mary k on August 3, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    did you quilt this on a quilting frame!

    Reply to mary k's comment

    • Susy on April 20, 2016 at 12:48 pm

      Nope, just over the back of the couch.

      Reply to Susy's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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