Activity quilt

I am certainly not bragging, since I kind of hacked this quilt together. Nonetheless, it is an idea I’ve had for awhile and was excited to try it for my newest nephew, Monty. No, you probably cannot get through a post without some kind of auntie mush. 
Monty was born to my brother Neil and his very dear friend Denise. I am excited to welcome this beautiful boy into the family and wanted to make something because it gives me something to do instead of just wishing he was closer (he resides in New Orleans). So the activity quilt took shape.
First I dragged out that tub of old jeans and other clothes that would make a cool project. I had been saving pockets since my last jean quilt so I had quite a few of them already cut out.

Pockets are hard to cut out to a good size because every jean is different, with more or less room around the pocket to work with. So I did the best I could. You can see some jeans have funny seams at angles making it a bit odd but oh well, it adds to the character, right? And then found a pair of checkered capris in that same bin, perfect. And topped it off with an ancient history pair of striped jean shorts to add some more pattern to the quilt.  I laid it out with pockets as every other square.
 
Then I sewed (hacked) all the squares together. And then got some ribbon and borrowed my awesome friend Karen’s snap tool (check out her product review here) to add snaps to the end of them. Sewed the now snap-able ribbons into the pockets. Sewed it all with some batting and used a thrift store jean curtain for the backing (it looked new but was only $4 for a lot of jean fabric- a steal!). I didn’t even bother doing traditional binding because the pockets were close to the edge and lets face it, I’m not very good at binding.  So it went together without binding and I sewed a zigzag stitch around the outside perimeter to hold it together better and add a bit more structure. Then I stuffed the pockets with toys, books, butt cream, a few handmade crinkly squares (tutorial here), and mailed it off! 

Far from perfect, but it was a fun project to do and I think Monty will appreciate it when he gets big enough to find all the hidden treasures. Not to mention, this will be great outside as the jean fabric is very sturdy and resists dirt pretty well. 
And of course, like any good hack (or sewist), I’m coming up with ideas on how to improve it on my next try. 
*This project also aided in the survival of February- very important in my book.