Friday, April 20, 2012

Finally Catching Up on Another UFO and Joining The String Thing Along

Hi everyone, my name is Vivian and I am glad to finally get to join you!  I had planned since last summer to put my sons back to work sewing up strings for Denim Blue Lagoon Blocks.  I had started this back in 2009 and wanted to make heavy winter quilts for my sons using scrap strings and denim from their outgrown jeans.  The pattern is from Fons & Porter and theirs was originally made up in batiks.
  

 This project was on my "PHD (Projects Half Done) Challenge" list last year.  And I again made plans to work on it when all the bags of old denim jeans to be used for the project were piled up around the cutting table (which is in my dining room) and needed to be cleared out before we had company over for the Thanksgiving holiday. When that deadline was not met, they got stowed away to await the New Year.  So when I saw this Quilt-Along at the start of this year I thought "three times a charm", right?  Even so, I've been so busy sewing other projects that I had been unable to clear enough work space for me to work with the boys.  But I've been a little better organized lately and thought I would get to this when the boys went on Spring Break last week week but this time non-quilty things got in the way.  The bright side is that when you face such roadblocks, the Quilt Gods are always in your corner!  For some reason, our cable service went out Wednesday afternoon.  That's right, no TV, internet or phone for a whole afternoon.  So what does a Mom do to entertain her kids?  Have them so sew strips instead!


My youngest (not that young anymore at 13) did this strip set and I've cut them into the 60 degree triangle units I need for the blocks.  Now that we've gotten started again, I want to continue to have them sew some strings for me until we have enough blocks for two twin size tops (I'm such a slave driver!).

As the string triangles accumulate, I will cut diamonds in "lights" and "darks" out of the old and outgrown jeans I've collected. As you can see, what is considered light or dark will depend on what it is teamed up with when the rows of blocks are constructed to form the "tumbling blocks" pattern.


Whatever denim I don't wind up using to make these will go towards making other denim quilts or accessories (I have a great tote bag pattern that I want to make).  The bonus is that if I can finally process all the jeans I have accumulated, this will also allow me to get that stash a little more manageable, compact and organized.


The pattern directions call for the triangles and diamonds to be joined into rows and then the rows are joined to make the tops.

As I sew them, I will lay them on the bed to see how many more pieces for each row and then how many rows of blocks I need for each top.  Back when we started this project, I had lucked up on a sale of some 60" wide fleece fabrics at Nancy's Notions which will be the backing for these quilts.  Given the weight of the denim and the fleece, I will probably not have to put additional batting in them.


I'm hoping that working on this will be as much fun for them as it will be for me. I doubt it but at least they will be able to say they had a hand in making their own quilts!  I probably won't post here again until I make some significant progress on the tops.  But if you'd like to follow the day to day progress or see what else I am working on, you can find me here.  Thanks to Brenda and the rest of you for all the inspiration and quilty eye candy you  have provided me to date.  It gave me just the kick in the rear I needed to get back to this!

1 comment:

Brenda said...

Great to have you join in here!