This was the first iteration of my 'denim' quilt. I was going through a phase where I was balking at paying £9 or £10 for a metre of fabric and wanting to make a more frugal and practical quilt. I originally wanted to use recycled denim but was told (quite rightly) that this really wasn't a good idea for the Quilt As You Go course I had signed up for. A quick trip to the Fabric Warehouse resulted in me picking up some light & dark 'denim' coloured cottons for about £3/m (which satisifed my frugality drive) which I mixed with some calico (which ironically cost more than double that as I had to get it from the quilt shop when I realised I didn't have a background).
The resulting quilt is simple but, I think, quite striking and uses just 3 fabrics to construct a variation of an Irish Chain (as featured in Carolyn Forster's Quilting On The Go book which I highly recommend). It was the first time I'd tried the quilt as you go method and, whilst it does add a couple of extra stages, it makes the hand quilting sooo much easier - I would never have wanted to do as much quilting as I did if I had to manhandle the entire quilt all the time. Also, I was a little afraid that the assembled quilt would be weaker than a traditional quilt (each block is constructed seperately so there isn't a solid piece of wadding/backing running through it) but it's been in daily use for the best part of 2 years now and isn't showing any signs of stress.
The whole quilt (King Sized)
Detail of the hand quilting (Click image to see better)
I used the same fabric on the back of each block as on the front so there is a chequerboard effect on the reverse.
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