How do you finish a wholecloth quilt?
Welcome to Quilting With Tamara! Finishing a wholecloth quilt involved completing all the quilting, trimming the edge, adding the binding, and washing carefully to remove the blue quilting lines. There are instances in which the blue stencil lines don’t wash out completely. The article below will see how I finished this two-year project.
Wholecloth Quilt Adventure
This post shows the results of my wholecloth quilting adventure. This was a completely new experience for me. I am much more confident in my hand quilting; a wholecloth quilt leaves little room for error. But no fear, once it is washed and dried – even those areas I am not happy with look soooo much better!
If you want to hear the story from the beginning – check here for the Wholecloth Quilt How-to page and Scrappy Wedding Ring to read about the project that started the hand quilting.
The wholecloth quilt deadline
I have been working on this quilt for about two years – but only seriously for the past year. Well, thank goodness Christmas with my son and daughter-in-law had been delayed until mid-January. Late last night, the 10th of January, I finally finished the quilt.
I will put a little blame on the family for not being healthy and taking care of my father and step-mom. I had little energy left to tackle long-term quilting, so I forced myself to sit there a few minutes each day. Hey, it all worked out – especially since I pulled 8 to 10 hours of hand quilting this past week. I must be crazy!
That Final Row – Will this Quilt ever end?
It wasn’t even an entire row, more like a half row. It felt like it was the biggest, longest row I had dealt with yet. To keep my mind busy while quilting, I figured that there were approximately 108 “hoopfuls” to quilt across this quilt (not counting the half row). Each hoopful took 6 to 8 hrs. to complete. That is a lot of sitting time.
When I started, I bought six spools of thread (220 yards each). Halfway through, I bought six more. I have two spools left. They won’t go to waste, and I am glad that I had enough to finish.
On The Hunt for the Binding Material
I have looked all over for the zip bag with the leftover fabric, binding fabric, directions, a swatch of batting, and anything else I was going to give them with the quilt. I had a feeling that it was sitting in the Coach from our trips when I dragged it along. Getting to the coach will be quite a feat, so I decided to look for more backing material instead.
I can mail that info out to my son when I finally come across it. As well as I do, you know that I will find it when I get back home and probably in an area I already looked in! But minor crisis averted as I found the backing fabric.
Cutting, sewing, Folding and Pressing the Binding
Does anyone else enjoy the binding part of the process? There is light at the end of the tunnel. I am almost to the finish line!
Washing the Stenciled Wholecloth Quilt
Can you believe it? I couldn’t find the directions with the information about washing the quilt. Thank goodness the internet was close by. I am irritated with myself because I wanted to add the pattern information into the journal for them. At least I had more backing fabrics available to create the binding.
I sprayed the quilt with plain water to see how it would do over the course of 5-minutes. Here are the minute interval pictures
Time for the Washing Machine
To say I was nervous about washing this quilt is an understatement. I just used cold water and no detergent on a gentle cycle in the first wash. Most of the blue came out, but there was still a bit showing. The quilt looked good, considering.
On the second wash, I used detergent and Oxiclean. After working on this for two years, it needed to be brightened. The results were fantastic. It was just what it needed. I have a couple of other finished quilts that need to be brightened.
I pulled the quilt out of the washer at this point and laid it on our king-size bed. Searching inch by inch to make sure the blue was gone and that there were no stains. I didn’t want to dry it if it had any issues.
Drying Time
Again I was nervous about this – what if I missed something and then heat set it using the dryer. All the hours spent on this to have something affect it. I am way harder on myself than my family is. A little bit of a perfectionist here.
I am one of those quilters that love the quilt once it is washed and dried. It indeed looks like an old-fashioned quilt. And guess what? Any of my wonky stitches are gone. I suppose if you took a magnifying glass, you would be able to find them. This is the part that is the payoff for my perfectionist side. To me, it looks likes someone knew what she was doing.
This was my first hand quilting project in which the whole design depends on hand quilting. I don’t have a pieced pattern or fabrics to fall back on.
Would I do it again? I don’t know, and I won’t rule it out because there is something satisfying about it. Will I hand quilt again? ABSOLUTELY! After I have had a break. I have some projects that I need to take care of first.
Where’s the Journal?
The journal was actually at the bottom of the basket that held the project. I can’t forget to add entries in the journal to share the end of the story with them. It was quite an adventure. I have a couple of days to share the love with them. Will I miss this one – sure, but I think it was because I was quilting it for special people, and they were on my mind the whole time. Do I want to start another one – not just yet. Hubby asked me to take a break – to give my head, neck, and back a break. I would love to design one – hmmm…..wonder what that would entail.
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Until Next Time…
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Absolutely gorgeous!! and if I were to design a wholecloth quilt (which I certainly would never make) I would make a snowflake design. <3
A snowflake quilt would be absolutely beautiful on a bright white fabric. In order for the pattern to really stand out – quilt it with a pale blue or iridescent thread (oh this would not be easy thread to work with). Thank you for sharing your idea! I would love to be able to design one.
Tamara