WIP Wed: Upcycled Quilts

I started sewing together my "upcycled" quilts in the last few days.  The photo above gives you the gist of my blue jeans quilt.  Plaid flannel and jeans are a perfect combination, don't you think?  Even with 4-5 pairs of old kid jeans, though it's only going to be a lap quilt size at the most.  I'm really surprised again, at how much fabric goes into a quilt...

I've been playing around with ideas for my vintage sheets, and made up a spool block.  I like it, but I'm not sure if I'll go with this or not.

As usual, it's Wednesday, so I'm linking up with Lee's WIP Wed at Freshly Pieced!  Come see what we're all up to!

Earth Day Quilt Challenge

With my New Orleans Quilt all done, and Earth Day right around the corner, I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to dive into some of the "recycled" fabric that I've been collecting in the last few years.  A quilt made out of these fabrics is easier on our planet, and easy on the wallet too.  With "up-cycling" being so popular now, I hope you will join me in making something in the next few weeks out of used fabric.

Here's a few of my ideas.

With 2 (rapidly) growing boys/men, I have no shortage of blue jeans in our house.  I often buy them used to begin with, and after they get worn by both of my boys (who are just 23 months apart), there is seldom a decent pair of jeans left over to give back to charity.  Not only that, but we passed a big milestone in our house this week-end.  My oldest son is now in mens' size jeans :-O.  I swear it was just yesterday that I was buying his first pair of baby jeans.  The sheer amount of denim fabric has also increased as they have grown!  So over the week-end, I cut into a pile of old jeans and have started making squares to use.  I plan on making a simple quilt with flannel sashing, and jean squares so as not to have any thick denim seams.

I also plan to dive into this pile of silk mens' ties that I bought recently for 50 cents per tie.  I'm thinking these may be a perfect excuse to make a Mariner's Compass mini quilt.  Now I just need to find a pattern...

I fell in love with quilts made from vintage sheet as soon as I saw my first one in blog-land, and have been eager to get a big quilt made from these.  I may use a quilt pattern that I already own, such as Maple Island's "BQ" or Swirly Girl's "Focus Pocus" .  Maybe I'll make something new.  One thing that's really stalled me on these is that the sheets I have are mostly floral, and with my almost entirely male household, they just don't "fit in" well.  They'll make a great gift though.

I need to find more sheets like these...

I'd love to hear comments about up-cycled projects that you've done, or will be doing!  Maybe I'll even try to figure out how to do a link-up or start a Flickr group.  If you're interested in sharing this way, let me know. (If you know how to do it, let me know too LOL).