Paula Doyle made this using old blue jeans, some old flannel shirts, and some leftover bits of wadding! We are so impressed at UKQU we asked her to tell her own story. .
This is a Hug size quilt, 50 x 70, perfect for the cold winter evenings – the top picture is the back and the bottom is the front, but how does Paula achieve such a lovely look?
For the past year or so here at Green Mountain Quilt Studio I have been GOING BLUE TO GO GREEN , and loving it! I’ve been making bags, cushions, and quilts out of old blue jeans, and trying to use up every bit of the jeans in the process. If you want to see what I mean, simply do an internet search for “YouTube Paula Doyle” , and you will come across some of the videos I’ve posted so far on the subject. The first one is called “Harvesting Jeans and Shirts for Quilts”, which will give you the basics of how to recycle and re-purpose your old blue jeans, flannel shirts, and even leftover strips of wadding/batting into quilting projects , and second video called “How to make a Ravioli Quilt with Denim and Flannel”, which shows you how to make my super easy and super fast “Plaids n’ Blues RAVIOLI Quilt”.
I love the look of denim and flannel together, as it reminds me of my Grandpa Jay , a dairy farmer from upstate New York, who never dressed in anything other than denim overalls and plaid flannel shirts, and who was always ready to give me a hug when I was around the farm. My RAVIOLI quilts are made from 5” x 5” RAVIOLI blocks of denim, combined with wadding, and flannel (or other fabrics). The blocks are quilted before being joined together, so there will be no having to turn the quilt around and around under your machine needle to get it quilted. It’s so simple that even beginners can make them with ease.
Ravioli quilts are sturdy and machine washable – they will fray naturally at the seams after washing, so they just get more and more cuddly with age and use. Ravioli quilts will go anywhere with you, and, best of all, they stop all those raggedy old jeans ending up in landfill or in incinerators . Experts on the subject say that textiles can take up to 200 years to decompose in landfills, and many of us would be shocked to learn that 84 percent of clothing ends up in landfills and incinerators. Additional videos about recycling and reusing jeans, shirts, and other leftover materials to make “green” quilted treasures will be forthcoming on my You Tube channel over the next few months, so make sure you stay tuned.
If you want to recycle your own jeans the pop over to Paula’s own website and discover how.
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