Quilting With Old Clothes • Insteading

Old Clothes Quilting By Luke Haynes

American Gothic
Made from Old Clothes
www.lukehaynes.com

Close up of above
Made from old clothes…

Old Clothes Quilt
www.lukehaynes.com
Detail of an Old Clothes Flag – The man can quilt!
www.lukehaynes.com

Luke Haynes also quilts on coffee sacks…
www.lukehaynes.com – www.etsy.com
Luke says he has been influenced by Gee’s Bend Quilters.

Gee’s Bend Quilters

Gee’s Bend is a small rural community southwest of Selma, Alabama. The community was formally the site of cotton plantations, primarily in the hands of Joseph Gee and his relative Mark Pettway, who bought the Gee estate in 1850. After the Civil War, the freed slaves took the name Pettway, became tenant farmers for the Pettway family, and founded an all-black community nearly isolated from the surrounding world.

The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American and African-American quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present. www.quiltsofgeesbend.com

Gee’s Bend Quilt
www.auburn.edu

Gee’s Bend Corduroy Quilt
www.auburn.edu

Gee’s Bend Quilts
www.auburn.edu

Work Clothes Quilt – Gee’s Bend
By Loretta Pettway Bennett
www.quilting.craftgossip.com

Detail of a Gee’s Bend Quilt
Flickr: Stiching Hands www.flickr.com

An Old Clothes Quilter Near You?

Many artists will take your old clothes and make a personalized quilt for you…

Seascape made from retired blue jeans
by Tom Deninger
Rivets, tabs and labels turn into sand and pebbles;
pockets and frays become waves and sea foam.
tomdeiningerart.com

Passage Quilts
By Sherri Lynne Wood
Beautiful work…
www.passagequilts.com

Alix Joyal of Mamaka Mills, creates one of a kind custom quilts and throws on the Seacoast of NH using recycled and repurposed textiles and fabrics. www.mamakamills.blogspot.com – www.etsy.com $150-$650

Recycled Clothing Quilt
By Sara of Halifax, Nova Scotia

Men’s Shirt Quilt
Ocheltree Design $1800.
www.ocheltreedesign.com

Men’s Shirt Quilt
www.sewing.com

Close up of Moondance
By Naomi Wanjiku
www.naomiwanjiku.blogspot.com

Patrick Nolan ‘Galaxy’
An avid recycler who lives in a recycled 105 year old former general store in Foristell, MO. Possibly a source for all those buttons. E-mail via www.foundryartcentre.org

Patrick Nolan ‘Galaxy’ close up.
Recycled fabric, buttons, jewelry. E-mail via www.foundryartcentre.org

Very Cool Men’s Tie Quilt

Quilted Trash
8th Graders at Carson Middle School
Use a quilting template but glue on cut outs.
www.encouragementlounge.blogspot.com

Etsy Mosaic Example:

Tips for DIY Upcycled Quilts & Other Fabric Uses:

1 – Look at Commercial Quilts For Ideas

You should look at commercial quilts to find good ideas for patterns. These examples would all be a good fit for upcycled patterns if you have clothing fabric that can be a good match for the pattern:

Cool chevron patterns with differing fabric styles would be a great contrast. Image courtesy of justbedding.com.au/bed-linen/quilt-covers

Here’s another good one if you have long strips of fabric available:

2 – Find Help From Etsy if You Can’t Quilt

There are lots of sellers that will take your fabric pieces and create various quilt patterns for you.

3 – Look For Alternative Sources for Fabric

Old baby clothes – use your own as a great gift for a kid (perhaps as they’re about to have their own kids), or buy these in bulk online or from a local Goodwill.
Etsy clothing scraps precut for quilting (example below)

4 – Thing Of Other Quilted Items

Make grocery shopping bags or purses.
Make gift bags or simply wrap a present and use ribbon to close.
Make winter accessories. Make a scarf hat and mittens from old sweaters.
Make doll clothes or stuffed animals.
Make bean bag chairs, filled with all those horrible peanuts.
Make a dog bed. Make dog clothes. Oh gosh please take an old sweater and put it on your dog and submit it in the comments below!