Project #9 – Denim Rails (#3) – with Pockets

• Denim Rails pattern in Bonnie Hunter’s BOOK: “Scraps and Shirttails”.
• Calls for 3 1/2″ wide denim strips, cut vertically from the legs of old jeans!
• First Denim Rails quilt that I’ve finished, out of three begun in Aug./Sept. 2019. Mine are all smaller than the pattern, throw size: 54 x 72″. Blocks are 9″, finished.
• 

I substituted jean pockets for the pattern’s 9-patches. Often, there’s very little fabric above and to the sides of salvaged back pockets. Easy enough to add strips of denim, usually used a different shade of blue than the pocket.

• Making the top took only 3 days because I used several finished blocks and denim pieces left after making Denim Rails #1 and 2 tops.
• Assembled the rows/columns of blocks at September’s Open-Sew Saturday, the first I attended, as a brand new quilt guild member.
• Thought I was going to use a flannel sheet in place of batting, but Guild members convinced me that a blue jean quilt will be warm enough w/o any filling.
• For the back, I chose a very LARGE-scale plaid fabric, that’s been in my stash since 2006! I know this because a dated cutting slip was still pinned to the selvedge. . . I paid $1 per yard. 🙂

First time to try self-binding*. Thought the red, pink, white and yellow of plaid would look gaudy against the mellow denim blues. But, thanks to graph paper, I was able to figure out how to cut up the plaid and rotate parts so binding contains only darker colors. I love the subtle effect this creates.

Mitered corners, another first, turned out fine. Hand-sewed the resulting diagonal mini seam on each corner.

When I laid the plaid backing out on kitchen floor, discovered it was printed slightly off-grain. The stripes of color running along perimeter of quilt are wide enough this isn’t noticeable there, but the narrower vertical stripes in the strip I inserted are definitely slanting to the left. sigh. (Thankfully, the friend I made it for has NOT noticed this. Neither did I draw her attention to it. lol)

Tied from the back, so knots and tails wouldn’t litter the quilt’s front. Inquired at Guild meeting, but didn’t find anyone who could advise best way to do this. I pin basted with bent safety pins (my first time). Then flipped quilt front/back, front/back as I went through both layers with a double strand of blue #10 weight crochet cotton, using surgeon’s knots. Did four ties per rail block and hid ties under four corners of each pocket.

Quilt DONE Mid-November 2019

Friend fell in love at first sight; I’m sure it was the 24 jean pockets that did it! She intends to display on sofa in family room, so isn’t bothered by the additional weight. But, in the future, I think I’ll limit myself to 6 or 8 pockets, unless someone specifically asks for more.

Overall, I’m pleased. Learned so much from this quilt. Feel good about how I dealt with it’s many challenges.

• Photographed while pinned to design wall in entry way. Covered edge of quilt-in-progress, to its right, with strip of white flannel cut from a sheet.
• Lighting – around 3 p.m. Sunlight from open door on left + open window shades + dining room chandelier + little desk lamp aimed at upper right corner of quilt.
• DH performed his usual editing magic to correct colors and even out contrast.

* NOTES on Self-Binding:

Trim backing so extends 2″ beyond front all round. Finger press fold 1 1/4″ from edge, then tucked raw edge beneath quilt top. (This creates a double layer of fabric on outer edge of quilt.) When binding is folded over, 3/4″ wide strip of backing fabric shows on quilt front. Pin, machine stitch close to edge.