Baby Denim Rag Quilt

Do you have lingering projects? The kind that you have the best intentions of doing someday and accumulate the supplies for but never quite get around to doing? Unfortunately I have many of those. One such project is a denim rag quilt which I have been meaning to make for years. Toward that end I have been diligently saving all of my old jeans and the old jeans of family members. I have even moved across the country with this pile of old jeans. Finally, last year, I started cutting down the jeans into squares for the patchwork quilt I intended to make. I had also planned on backing it with a pretty flannel print, but when I started looking at fabric stores it seemed flannel was fairly expensive for the size quilt I wanted to make. Yikes! This was supposed to be a thrifty project from recycled jeans! So again the project got put on hold. Finally, thanks to a suggestion by my sister, I ended up buying a flannel sheet set instead. Much cheaper! So now I had my denim squares cut, and my flannel fabric procured. And that is where things stood for quite awhile. 

Well, something happened to refocus my attention and give me a deadline. My husband and I are expecting our first baby! Nothing prompts a flurry of activity like that kind of deadline. Must finish quilt before baby arrives! It also changed the scope of the project. Rather than the full sized quilt I had originally envisioned, it turned into a baby quilt that our little guy can play on. And at long last it is done!!

Here are all of my squares laid out. I didn't have enough of the dark denim to have a complete checkerboard pattern, so there is a border of the lighter denim all the way around. Each cut square measures 6"x6", but was sewn with a 1/2" seam so that the final square size was 5".  The quilt measures 7 rows x 7 rows, so the finished size is approximately 35"x35". Perfect for baby!

Here it is sewn together. After sewing each row together I clipped the seams to encourage fraying in the wash for the classic rag quilt look. It was easier to clip as I went, rather than clipping the entire quilt at the end.

I sewed a 1/2" seam around the entire border to finish it.

And here is the back side with the cozy flannel. Our baby's nursery is done in navy and white, with red accents, so this ended up matching perfectly! Hurray for a completed project! :)