Quilt Along #10 – Preparing a Wholecloth Quilt

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

23 Responses

  1. Unknown says:

    Leah, I really enjoy your teaching style. You communicate very clearly and you have excellent illustrations.
    Thank you
    Linda B

  2. Mike Pearson says:

    I have been following along, but I have not been doing any free motion quilting 🙁 I have a huge project (queen size quilt) I have been piecing, and it's close to ready to quilt. I'll blog about it and link up then. I do have a question. I know practice is important, but I often find myself getting really good at FMQ while I am doing it, but then I start another project (mostly piecing) so that when it is time to FMQ again, I feel like I lost some of my improvement. Unfortunately, with my career (the one that pays for supplies for projects), I do not get to sew everyday. So, this can be a long time between FMQ. I do feel like I'm getting better, but it's taking a long time. Do you have any suggestions for this problem?

  3. Bev in TX says:

    Very interesting.

    It looks to me as if you ran the elastic under the table, is that so?

    Thanks!

  4. Sally says:

    Great information. Love the elastic idea. But–how do you secure it to the table? Thanks.

  5. June D says:

    Leah, All your lessons are so helpful and well thought out! I'm looking forward to getting up to date but will go ahead and start getting the fabric ready so I'm ready for next week. I already used the Pinmoors that I ordered from you – they are great!

    Is that table you are using to pin baste the same 3' x 5' plastic table that you used to have behind your machine? It looks like it's a soft plastic – but guess it's either not being scratched with the needles or you don't care that it's getting scratched?

  6. Katie says:

    *whining* i wannnttooo makkeee oneeeeeeeeee ;c) tee hee
    also. . BTW. . . your microstippling is incredible. . I have such a hard time with it so I'm looking forward to working on this with ya!

  7. Mila says:

    My name is Mila. It's wonderful to find people like you Leah, your instrucctions are so clear the video and the explanation. I will try this proyect . I'm improving my FMQ and my english. Love from Canary Islands and thank you

  8. misha says:

    I am busily trying to get to an organized position so i can start this project. I have been reading your blog since the beginning and you are wonderful for making such fantastic resources available to us. This project will be my first whole cloth and i am very excited to try it.

    Here's how I prep my fabric: Wash, and then hang up (my studio in in my basement and i use magnets to hang large pieces of fabric to the duct work), lightly saturate fabric with starch, let dry completely, iron with a hot iron (i use steam and i only have to do one pass). When the fabric is cool it will feel like paper! It is a bit of work, but I LOVE how the fabric is super easy to work with after doing this prep and no white flakes ever.

    Back to spring cleaning, so I can eventually GO QUILT! 😉

  9. Anne says:

    My first reaction to the photo was "No way – I could never do that..". But I'm feeling a bit reassured after watching this week's video, and having got the design onto my fabric. Now I'm quite excited! A question – I have various bits and pieces of batting I could use for this: any recommendations as to the best sort to use for a wholecloth quilt?

  10. Leah Day says:

    Several great questions so here are some answers:

    Sally – the strip is long so one side is secured to the backing then the strip is stretched under the table and the end is attached to the other side of the quilt backing. If you have folding tables, you can also loop the strips on the table legs.

    Bev – Yep, that's exactly right.

    Mike – Have you considered having some small 10 inch quilt sandwiches handy to play with quickly? This way you could hop onto your machine and quickly stitch get some practice before going to work. You can do a lot in 15 minutes – it may surprise you!

    June D – Yep, it's just a plastic folding table and it's scratched up pretty badly already. I'm not into using furniture that can't be USED!

    Anne – I'd say any batting goes, but make sure it doesn't have any shrink to it. Personally I like polyester batting the best. If your wholecloth shrinks after it's finished, it could distort your design.

    Off to quilt,

    Leah

  11. mzeitz says:

    Do you prepare the front and backing fabric the same way?

  12. Michelle says:

    Can it be spray basted? I've been using unscented aerosol hairspray to baste small projects. This project looks small enough to do it with.

  13. Theresa says:

    This looks like a lovely project. I've never done anything like this but I'm going to try and follow along. I like the elastic basting method and *think* I now understand how to do it – the elastic is just attached to the end edges of the fabric and not all down the side?

  14. Catarina says:

    Thanks for yet another great tutorial Leah! Keep it up! Looking forward to the next installment and the arrival of the Pinmores I orderd.

  15. Catarina says:

    Good tutorial! Looking forward to the next installment. Always a pleasure to watch – keep it up!

  16. June D says:

    Do we also mark the framing square on the fabric? And do we mark the diagonal lines?

  17. Debbie says:

    Hello Leah! I am very new to free motion quilting and when you say that the finished whole cloth for this project is going to be 15.5, exactly how big do I cut my square of material?

  18. Leah Day says:

    More great questions! Here are some answers:

    Theresa – Yes, the elastic is only attached to the edges of the backing fabric, pulling it tight just like masking tape.

    Michelle – It can be spray basted, but I won't guarantee the results. I've played with spray basting twice with wholecloths and both times hated it because it didn't hold securely enough.

    Debbie – The finished quilt can be anywhere from 16 – 18 inches, so cut your fabric 20 inches square to start. The outside line of the pattern isn't the finished size, but a guide to taping the pattern together!

    June D – Only if you want to mark those lines. They're mostly for registration purposes. For bigger wholecloths you can fold the fabric in half and diagonally and use these folds to line up the pattern if you have to reposition or move the quilt to mark every section. I mostly included them because they make taping the pieces together easier.

    I hope that helps! I guess I didn't teach this part very well!

    Cheers,

    Leah

  19. Tsigeyusv says:

    Brilliant use elastic to secure the backing taut. I love the idea of using something reusable.

    Any brilliant ideas for those really large bed quilts that are too large for a table? I've used blue tape on my floor, but even so, I get a wrinkle now and again.

  20. ggsblankies says:

    Leah, Thank you so much for your time involved teaching new skills! I found you on utube a few weeks back and I sometimes find myself just watching the little videos over and over. I have tried some of them and have also been trying to do some type of stitching everyday! Thank you.
    I have a quick question. I have began getting my fabric ready for the quilt along… and am very excited! I used the blue, wash-a-way pen. I have my little quilt all traced and ready to go…. but I noticed that it seems the pen bled out a little… what I mean is the line I followed got a little thicker. I really don't see it as a problem, I will do my best to stay in the center of the line when stitching. I just was wondering if you have had that problem? It was warm in my sewing room yesterday… could the humidity play a roll in that?
    Again, thanks so much for your time…I can't wait to see the next step!!
    Debra

  21. Ramona says:

    Hi Leah, I just found this post and I'm pretty excited. I've been wanting to make a whole cloth quilt for a while. Your blog is what turned me on to freemotion quilting by the way. Thanks for that! It's been so much fun.

    You mention methods for transferring a design. Don Linn blogged this on the 2012 free motion quilt challenge. He transferred onto organza and used the organza to transfer to cloth. Including link. http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-2012-fmq-challenge-tutorial-by.html
    Notice you have this month's blog. So excited.

  22. cHeY says:

    The link posted above no longer works. Is there a new link perhaps?

  23. Leah Day says:

    We've updated this pattern and turned it into a video workshop you can now find here: http://leahday.com/products/heart-wholecloth

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