Indie Folk King Sized Patchwork Quilt – Top Finished

You read that title correctly, the top is finished.  We had a pretty quite weekend at home and I was able to work on the piecing consistently.  Let’s go back to the process of chain piecing this top where we left off on the original post.

Piecing

After sorting piecing is one of my favorite parts of making a quilt.  The design begins to come to life and you get to watch the development of the project.  To piece this quilt I started with one fabric and matched it to each of the other fabrics.  I repeated this for each fabric.  It’s the best way to I can create a random look and still be efficient in my sewing time.

P has some strong opinions of how I should spend my time with him and it usually doesn’t include the sewing machine.

Yes those are shorts and snow boots. He gets it from his dad.

After two piles I would stop and take a break or stretch.  Plus, I need the space behind my machine cleaned out.  I can clip the blocks apart while watching a movie or in my down time.

Making the rows

Once majority of my fabrics were matched and pieced it’s time to make the rows.  One side note:  I do leave some of each fabric back to add in as needed while making the rows.  With this quilt I knew it needed to be big.  Luckily I have a king sized bed and the drop size my client wanted.  I could test the length on my bed to determine the right length per row.

After determining the length I sort out my fabrics into two buckets.  I put one stack into each bucket to help with keeping things random while piecing.

This will be explained in more detail with the video I’m working on to go along with this quilt.  I wanted to offer a visual of how I do this process as well.  As I worked the rows started going onto my ironing board in a big pile.

Combining the rows

With a smaller baby quilt I would stop here and press each row.  With a quilt this size I chose to move forward without pressing my rows and just pin everything in place so the seams nested.  Besides cutting the fabric, this was probably the biggest time commitment of the project.  Each row had to be pinned and seams nested just so.  I worked in sections of 4-6 rows.  Then I started combining the smaller sections into the overall top.

Quilting this will require an extra table behind my current table to support the weight.  My arms and shoulders were pretty tired after getting the top finished.

Yes, there are some repeats of fabrics together, but it’s minimal given the overall size of the quilt.

Next steps

The plan is to press and baste this quilt tonight.  I have cleared out space in the dining room to make this happen.  To baste I will use a combination of pins and spray basting.  For backing I found a silky soft king sized sheet in a coordinating green on a local swap site.  It matches well and is basically the size I need for the top.  Less time creating the back is a blessing when your quilt is enormous.


Indie Folk Quilt – part 1

Indie Folk Quilt – part 3