A few weeks ago I posted that I would like to make a quilt for summer and I started putting some serious thought into that idea. Something that I could use for picnics. Not too precious. Very sturdy that I could launder weekly if necessary. And then there was Tuesday’s post that included my observation that I have way too many old jeans in my stash.

Time to make another denim quilt. This will be my fourth.

The first was for my grandson Riley back in 2014. And now he is 21!

“Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright” quilt was my second denim quilt and I made it for my friend’s 60th birthday.

And the third went to my granddaughter, Courtney. A scrappy denim quilt.

While I didn’t do any quilting on International Quilt Day a few Saturdays ago because I was in a parade with the Homosassa Ukers that day, I did start designing my new denim quilt that afternoon. The design has gone through several iterations. I’m going with Half Square Triangles (HSTs) because I like making them. And they are so versatile. I started out wanting to make really large blocks but ended up with a 5 1/2″ block size because that’s about as big as I could get from these old blue jeans. I had a couple yards of dark blue denim in my fabric storage and used it as the background.

I did a lot of slicing and dicing, followed up by stitching and more slicing.

I have a “Quilt in a Day” 6 1/2” square up ruler which I love. It has markings for anywhere from 1 1/2” to 6 1/2”. Just put the ruler on the stitched line and slice. Easy-Peasy. I make my HST’s 6 1/8″ and then cut them down.

I also recently added two wool pressing mats, a tailors clapper, and a Oliso Iron to my toy chest. I mean tool chest. This is the first quilt I have used these on so I’m testing them out. So far. So good.

Then I did some ideas on my small design board.

Miss Kitty was there to help.

I made 96 HSTs. And cut a whole lot of 5 1/2″ squares. That was easy. Now I have to put them together! That’s the hard part! Hopefully I have it all stitched up by next week!