Remember when quilts were made from clothes that were too worn out to be of use any more? Recall being given a quilt where you recognized a little piece of the patchwork as a dress or shirt your Mom made for you when you were little? For those who sew, it’s often hard to let the remnants go. I know I’m guilty of that. However, we met someone who takes all these elements to a new level. Meet Jason!

Best to start at the beginning, in 1993 Jason was managing an American Eagle Outfitters store and was required to wear what the store carried at the moment. This meant he had to stay “current” and wear what was currently on the sales floor. If it wasn’t on the rack, it wasn’t on his back! Since the clothes weren’t worn out, but he couldn’t wear them to work, he decided to repurpose them and make a quilt. Below you see the results of nine pants, two flannel shirts, four shorts, and four button down shirts. What it doesn’t show is his Granny’s thread he used to piece the top. Alta worked at Angelica and he still had some of her thread left. He is still using some of that thread!

The good news? Jason is a person who uses a quilt. I asked him how long he had it on his king size bed and he answered “forever”. The bad news? In 2015, he noticed it was wearing thin. It wasn’t until 2017 he decided to deconstruct it. It had been quilted with clear nylon thread and all of that had to be picked out of the blocks. He salvaged as many of the blocks as he could and recut some of the old blocks into new blocks. Since he needed to add fabrics to the quilt, he returned to his closet and grabbed a couple pair of pants. He had recently hemmed some drapes and decided to incorporate the red striped fabric into the new quilt. Oh, some huntsmen outdoor upholstery fabric caught his eye. This fabric from cushions in their first home became the four corners of the new quilt. Jason is the king of recycle and repurpose, get the guy a crown!

Notice Jason’s decorative overstitching he did on the seams for the blocks. Beautiful touch!

After two years of painstakingly working on the quilt, it is 2019 and ready for quilting! Guess what - the quilt grew in size too which meant given the type of fabric used in piecing the top, this was one heavy quilt! For the back, he used old sheets. He did this for the original, he was totally doing justice to the first version. The only thing that changed was the colour. The original used blue sheets for the back and burgundy was used this time.

Jason had an interesting request for us, could we put the first and second dates of quilt creation on the quilt. Below (top photo) you see “9319” which comes from 1993, when the first quilt was made, and 2019, when the second quilt was made. 9319 makes this quilt even more meaningful to us as long armers. It shows the passion Jason has for his quilt and the memories it holds.

American Eagle Outfitters, Part Deux is finished!!

The finished American Eagle Part Deux was gorgeous! Jason chose a quilt pattern called maze. It gives great coverage and has a modern feel. For thread, he chose an olive green which worked well with his various fabrics. The photo above and below shows the quilting. But let’s think about denim, drapes, fabric, batting, want to guess what it weighed? 13 pounds! Hence, using the display rack in the hallway to show Jason his quilt. Our display wall couldn’t handle this monster! :)

Displayed in an appropriate “socially distanced” manner in “the annex” before social distance was a thing.

Thank you, Jason, for finding The Gentleman Quilter and allowing us to be a part of this work of art!!

American Eagle Outfitters, Part Deux