Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Completed King Size Quilt

This past week I finished up the binding and hand quilting on my king size quilt. I was hoping to be able to take photos outside but I need helpers, dry weather, and good light all at the same time to make that happen, and that might not be possible for a while. So for now, here are photos of it inside.

king quilt 1
I had to look at photos of the finished quilt top to remember which way I had decided was the top.

The quilt consists of 16 improvised log cabin blocks that are near 16" square. I used flea market fancy fabrics and other fabrics that coordinated with the FMF. The fabric used for the sashing and borders is Moda crossweave. 

I machine quilted the quilt on my Janome QC 4900. There are a few pops of hand quilting too. The main trick for machine quilting this quilt (around 96" x 104") is to not put all the batting in at first.

*For my first chunk of quilting on this quilt, I pin basted a piece of batting that was as wide as the two center rows of blocks, plus about 4 inches on each side. Depending on the design of the quilt, it would be good to try to divide the quilt into thirds and put the middle 1/3 of batting in to begin with.
*Then I machine quilted that section, leaving the 4 inches on each side, and the borders, unquilted.
*Next I attached batting to one of the sides, pin basted the batting in, and quilted it. (But not the borders.) This tutorial of mine shows how my grandma taught me to piece batting and that's how I attached the batting during this process.
*Then I attached the batting to the other side and quilted the blocks and sashing on the other side.
*The final step was quilting the whole border, which wasn't really difficult at all because I didn't have much quilt to the right of my sewing machine needle.

Here are a few close-ups:

king quilt detail 1
I quilted feathers with echo stitching in the sashing and borders. In the borders, the space around the feathers is quilted with small loopy quilting. I thought about doing something fancier, but decided to make it easy on myself at that point.

king quilt detail 2
I like the pink/blue/gray color scheme of this block.


king quilt detail 3 
I quilted this block after I learned to do the clamshell/paisley quilting design.

king quilt detail 4 
The feathers and the flowers I put in the feather intersections show up pretty well here.

king quilt detail 6 
This one has a lot of texture, plus it shows one of the little hand quilted spots in the quilt.

The back of the quilt:
king quilt back 1 
Mostly kona solid fabrics, with a couple of extra blocks. We can reverse it if we get tired of the front, I suppose.

A closer view of the little block in the center of the back: 
king quilt back 2 

I'm really happy to have this project completed and on my bed! I'm not sure I'll make another quilt this big for quite a while, but I'm glad I made this one and I feel like I learned a lot along the way. 

Other blog posts about this project:
http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2011/05/blocks-flea-market-fancy-improv.html
http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2011/05/improv-block-progress.html
http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2011/06/last-3-blocks.html
http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2011/06/king-size-quilt-top-finished.html
http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2013/01/machine-quilting-king-size-quilt.html

19 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Wow! That is so amazing. Your quilting is so beautiful! I love all of it. The fabrics and colors you used are so pretty. Congratulations on a really amazing finish! I'll bet it is so satisfying to climb into bed under that beauty!

xo -E

Tiffany said...

Oh wow! Making a king size quilt is such a huge feat and you did an amazing job. I really love your quilting.

audrey said...

This quilt is incredible! I'm so glad I read your thoughts on piecing the batting as you quilted it. I'm looking to (maybe!) quilt a queen-sized quilt on my own sewing machine, and I'm scared! But that might be just the trick. I love your quilting though, and I'm really quite inspired. Thanks you!

Lynn Douglass said...

It looks fantastic! Congratulations on a great finish!

Tamie said...

This is just beautiful and something like I've been wanting to try myself.

teaginny said...

completing this is quite a feat! the quilting is just gorgeous!!

Shruti said...

Awesome job girl! I love your improvised quilting! The back is lovely too!

Mary on Lake Pulaski said...

It's fabulous Vicki! Congratulations on a great finish - beautiful quilt and your quilting turned out so nice. I'm still hand quilting my king size quilt...

StasaLynn said...

Stunning! Thanks for the tip on machine quilting and batting.... I a newbie to machine quilting (I have not finished one yet) so all the tips are a treasure.

Beautiful job on your quilt! Love all the colors!

Thanks for sharing

Candied Fabrics said...

Vicki! This is FANTASTICAMUNDO!!!!!!!! Front and back are totally AWESOME!!!! You rock!

Clothed in Scarlet said...

Love it! What a great quilt and it obviously brought back memories of your grandmother too. Bonus points for that! Thanks for sharing those tips. Sarah

SandyQuilts said...

I came over from modern on facebook to get a good look at your quilt. I am so jealous ... it is beautiful and your quilting is awesome. And the back, oh my. Congrats

Paula said...

You did an awesome job on this quilt. It looks great. I cannot imagine quilting a king size quilt on my domestic so kudos to you!! It is wonderful.alerkes 11

Deb@asimplelifequilts said...

Your quilt is just amazing! I love everything about it...

Ritapizza said...

OMG your quilting is so so beautiful and amazing! I had no idea about your secret batting trick! That's so awesome and clever! I a so in awe of your lovely quilt, your quilting, and the back is so cool too! Congrats on finishing! You must be thrilled!

Anonymous said...

this is gorgeous on both sides! great quilting!

Nanette Merrill said...

love the quilts. LOVE LOVE the log cabin and the dark surrounding the cabins. It is amazing. the quilting is great. I wish it was mine.

Janice @ Better off Thread said...

Wow, that is a beautiful quilt and your machine quilting is amazing! It's kinda boggling my mind how you did it and I am impressed!!

DangAndBlast! said...

that's impressive! I have what may be a stupid question about pin basting and fmq - when do you take the pins out? all I've done before is hand quilting (where I can put the pins where I don't plan to have quilting stitches) and really basic in the ditch or echo quilting (where you just pin in the middle of the piece, since you're stitching only around the edge), and then I remove the pins after the whole quilt is complete. I know that can't be the way you do it, with those lovely swirls and such leaving little room for quilting around a pin!