Wholecloth Quilting
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Wholecloth quilting the easy way,
using quilt as you go methods
As its name suggests, wholecloth quilting involves making a quilt from one piece of fabric only, with the design coming from the quilting rather than the placement of patchwork blocks.
There are some truly beautiful examples of wholecloth quilting around but I can't aspire to them: I decided to start easy with a series of wholecloth quilted blocks that I am going to combine in a quilt as you go project.
The finished block size will be 18" square so I cut an 18.1/2" square from the top fabric. Wholecloth quilts are usually made from a plain fabric, but I have chosen a lightly mottled fabric to add a little interest.
As this is going to be quilt as you go, the wadding and backing fabric need to be around 21" square to give plenty of edging for combining the blocks.
Place the backing fabric right side down, smooth gently and add the wadding. Smooth gently and add the top fabric right side up. Beginning at the centre, baste to the edges along the centre lines and then along the diagonals. This gives you 8 lines of basting to hold the layers together.
Using a fabric marking pen, mark your quilting design on the top fabric. For this block I am using an overall design, but for another block I may use a 4" design block repeated. The important thing to remember is to leave about 1 to 2" around the edge not quilted so that you can join the blocks together at a later stage.
Beginning at the centre, start to quilt your design, gradually unpicking your basting as you go. I was in a battle with time on this one as I had used a fabric marker that fades relatively quickly, so I had to keep at it before the design faded too much.
Using the rolled seam quilt block on the right (click on rolled seam for details)as the centre block, and 8 of the whole cloth quilted blocks as on the left, I am going to make a quilt using a quilt as you go method. Full details next month.
rose@ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk
www.ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk