…is done. It took a lot of unpicking and sewing but it is finally finished.
This is one of the biggest quilt tops I have made, finishing at 70 inches x 85 inches. I was struggling a little to wrangle it through the sewing machine at the end.
I actually struggled quite a bit with finishing this top because in the cold and flu haze of a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take the paper off the blocks BEFORE I sashed them. Silly silly silly move.
It meant I had to unpick the sashing a couple of times to get the blocks to align properly. But half a ton of Best Press, a trip to the store to pick up more Kona Snow and lots and lots of pinning later I got it all done.
That just leaves making the back, basting and quilting to do… but I think I am going to take a break before I attempt the next steps. I need to get my head around dealing with a quilt this big… any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.
WOMBAT QUILTS 
It sure is pretty!
I knew this would be a fantastic quilt from the moment I saw the first few blocks. I really love it!
The only suggestion I have is to use 108″ wide backing, maybe something like Spot On by Robert Kaufman, just to avoid having to wrangle the back seams.
Great idea. Thank you so much.
It’s absolutely lovely!
I’m struggling with figuring out how to wrangle my own monster quilt at the moment… That looks great (truly worth the unpicking to get it right…)
Are you going to do the quilting yourself?
I don’t think so- I could barely handle a twin last time I tried…
It is beautiful. My tip … take the backing, batting, and top to a long armer and let her wrangle it. That’s what I did with the biggest one I ever made, 🙂
I would wrap it gently and take it for a nice drive in the fresh air to visit a long arm quilter 🙂 You have inspired me to add this to my to do list 😉
Ah if only I could afford to send it out… But also it is for a dear friend so I kind of want to do it all myself. I know I will regret this sentiment but I have to give it a go.
Oh I really like this quilt! A lot of fave fabrics in there (LOVE DS!) and of course a beautiful block!
Gorgeous quilt.
It is just wonderful…. so springtime-cheerful and blooming like a flower meadow… I love your blog & the inspiration it gives to me! Thanks.
It really is a spring appropriate quilt… And as you can see from the photo the sun is even shining here in Portland. Winter is over till next time…Yipee.
And all at once
upon a quilt i saw a host of
Zakka Flowers!!
What a lovely quilt top. Sorry it was a struggle. Work on something else for a while and you will be in love with it when you go back to it. None of the stressfulness is evident and the flowers reflect your joyful spirit. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. Mary and I think you are right, a break will bring me back to the project refreshed.
I just did 2 not quite that big but real close.. as a novice quilter but long time sewer, I took the puddle approach.. I tried rolling one end/side but that just wasnt working for me.. puddling means a lot of wrangling that puppy around and around for what I was doing.. I made hubby a HD themed throw and quilted around each of the logos!! what was I thinking?? It looks really cool on the back, but man my shoulder was killing me till about 1/2 way through I said to myself.. dopey.. there is a reverse on this machine for a reason.. that at least greatly reduced the turning and turning..
Yours is really pretty.. is it pieced or paper pieced??
(ack I just realized you are a paper piece type of gal.. so I take that back!)
I do normal piecing too but my heart belongs to paper piecing.
Sore shoulders and neck are my biggest worry but if I take it slow I should be okay. I like the idea of puddling and will definitely give it a go.
Well I was also working at the dining room table, which helped the real estate for the puddling, but contributed greatly to the pain! Take frequent breaks.
Love it. The flowers are stunning.
Lovely quilt – I love the bright colors! Wonderful job.
I’ve done a few that size. OK, advice. Don’t even think about spray basting. To baste it, don’t do it on the floor. It’s so large it’s hard get everything smooth, especially on carpet. Find a table long enough to take the width. Tape the backing along the top edge to the edge of the table. The fabric runs across the table and the rest hangs down, pulling it straight from the taped edge. Then tape the batting to the backing along the same edge, then tape the top to the batting, ditto. The weight of each fabric will pull the layers straight. Start pinning/sewing. When you reach the opposite edge of the table, peel up the tape holding the backing and draw the whole thing across the table till you have unbasted fabric again. Tape down across the fabric again and do it all again. If you use low tack painter’s masking tape it won’t leave a residue on the fabric or damage the table surface. And with quilts that size, I tend to do really simple diagonal cross hatching. Do the two longest diagonal lines first, rolling the quilt up either side. After that, every line is shorter and you’re on the downhill stretch! Rolling’s a pain, but it’s a lot easier on the shoulders to manage the quilt through the machine.
Kate you are fabulous. This is great advice…but if I get stumped expect a call!
Any time!
This is really fantastic!! I can’t wait to see how it looks when it is finished! I’m sure it’s a challenge to quilt something this large on your machine at home (I’ve not yet tried), but I have no doubt you will tackle it beautifully, after seeing your prior work!
You might check out http://www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/04/machine-quilting-101pre-basting-prep.html She’s doing a series on quilting large quilts on your sewing machine. She is a true believer in doing it yourself. By the way, I love this block. I’ve never seen it before and the colors are very happy.
Thanks Wanda. I have been following CrazyMoms posts and have learnt so much in just a few lessons. The sewing around the end of your quilt is genius…I had never thought about doing this but it makes so much sense.
Great. I’m glad you’ve found her.
Awesome Finish! I do love what you’ve done here. Quilting it will be hard, but after it is done, totally worth it. You’ll forget the pain, kind of like giving birth. ha!!
Love it! I rested in how u r going to quilt it.
There is a great class on Craftsy about quilting large quilts on a domestic machine taught by Ann Pedersen that I found really interesting! She goes through a number of ways to tackle a quilt this big, including techniques for split batting and split quilt tops. The former might be a way to handle this quilt–you basically cut the batting into 2-3 pieces, just sandwich the first one, quilt that, then add the remaining piece(s) of batting back in and quilt those sections. I haven’t tried it because I haven’t made a quilt that big, but I think she has great ideas.
Sylvia thank you. I will see the class out as it sounds like it will be incrediable useful.
(Not sure if my first comment went through, so apologies for duplicates–)
There’s a great class on Craftsy about quilting large quilts on your domestic machine taught by Ann Pedersen. She goes through a number of techniques including split batting and split quilt tops. The former might work for this top–basically you cut the batting into 2-3 pieces, sandwich the first piece and quilt it, then add the remaining pieces back in and quilt those. I haven’t tried this technique since I haven’t made a quilt this big since watching it, but they are definitely great tips!
This is gorgeous!! I’ve only newly found your blog and I’ve only completed 5 quilts, my biggest so far was 60×90″…. I FMQ’d it on my domestic Janome. I am reading through all these tips to see what else I could be doing… I sweated under that quilt for a week when I quilted it!!
Don’t let the size scare you! I’ve done a King-sized on my home machine. I like to tape it to my hard wood floor to baste. I find I have no trouble getting them to lay flat. I puddle the quilt into the machine, turn on my pivot feature, drop the feed dogs and let the needle dance! I have tall counters in my room, so I stand to quilt. I have way less trouble with my back, hips, and shoulders and neck than I used to. I wouldn’t try to quilt the whole thing in a day, your arms will be sore. Those flowers will be really fun to quilt. I love to paper piece as well. Way to go. Thanks for all the eye candy. Your projects are really wonderful!
Oh, it’s just lovely and you’ve inspired me to make one!
Lovely! I’m so impressed, as this project frightened me away. 😉 Just beautiful and I’m sharing on the Zakka 2.0 Patchwork Please fb page….
Thank you for sharing it. It took me a while to get the top done but it was definitely worth it I think.
Wow, looks beautiful! I think my city sampler is something around that size and was very stressful to quilt!! I think you’ll know better than me what’s the best way to go about it 🙂
Kate is bang on with her advice. You know those cheap folding trestle tables you can buy at Bunnings back home? A lot of my quilting friends pull out those for jobs like this.
I am sure you already know about ‘working in quarters’ so you are not trying to push too much through the machine’s throat space.
I love the flowers. I really should finish hand quilting my single-flower cushion …
You’ve outdone yourself, again. 108″ backing seems like a good way to treat this, and honestly, I would take it to a longarm quilter and ask for a woolen batt. It’s so beautiful and so large that I think you might regret trying to machine quilt it yourself. Bravo, good job!
love your flower top. Beautiful.