Denim and flannel quilt

Front side

Happy Birthday to my DS!  This year he had a special request for his birthday... a heavy denim quilt.  It's taken some time, but it was a great scrap buster!  Four yards of flannel out of the stash, and my box of old jeans is practically empty.  Whoo-hoo!

I like to make denim quilts double sided.  Each piece has denim on one side and flannel on the other.  I stitch them together in four-patches with the seams on one side. Then sew those blocks together with the seams on the opposite side.  That way the seams aren't all on one side.

Cloudy day for photos.  The flannels are mostly forest greens, dark green plaids and white with bears or pine trees.

back side

I haven't made too many rag edge quilts.  They are SO MESSY.  But I tried something new this time and I think it made a big difference controlling the mess when I washed & dried it to get the edges to frizz up.  Here's the steps:

1. After snipping the seams every 1/4 inch or so, tumble the dry quilt in the dryer on Cool Tumble for 20 minutes. Clean the lint trap out every 10 minutes.
2.  Take outdoors and hang over the clothesline.  Brush off as much of the fuzz and threads as you can.
3.  Place in washer on setting that gives the most water in the washer. (large load for me)  Set a timer, and stop the washer just before it discharges the water.
4.  Take a wire strainer from the kitchen and swish it through the water in the washer to take out as many of the thread particles as possible.  This was a brilliant idea!  I scooped out a huge amount of fibers and kept them from going through all the washing machine plumbing lines.
5.  Put a lint collecting net or nylon sock over the washer discharge tube.  Start discharging the water from the washer.  Stop the washer if necessary several times to clear out the lint sock/net.
6.  Take the quilt back out to the clothes line.  Shake and beat to get as much of the lint off as possible.
7.  Tumble in the dryer at medium temperature.  Set a timer and clean out the lint trap every 10 minutes.
8.  Out to the clothesline again and brush off the remaining lint.  A whisk broom might help here.

All done!  And what a difference it made to my washer & dryer and the household plumbing as well.