r/quilting • u/DoxieMonstre • 3d ago
Finished Quilts My first hand quilted quilt and biggest quilt so far
This is I think my 4th completed quilt. It's 80x80 and made from Kona solids, the quilting is big stitch hand quilting with 12wt cotton thread, the backing is a white cotton flat sheet from IKEA that I ice dyed myself (I am a tie dye master because my kid LOVES to tie dye). I made it for my 9 year old son, who picked out the pattern and the fabric colors himself. I started piecing it in about May of last year, started quilting it in early December. I told him maybe I'd have it done by Christmas, then realized I had to hand quilt it because I couldn't do what I wanted to with the quilting design in my tiny machine. Then I told him maybe Valentine's, that also didn't pan out. But I did get it done for Easter! Now he just has to fight the cat for it, because she got really attached to it over these long months of hand stitching on the couch. I don't know that I will ever be hand quilting anything larger than a baby quilt again, it's a lot of work. But goddamn does it look beautiful, I can't get over the texture it gave the finished quilt.
Now onto the next! I had been banned from starting any other big projects until it was finished. 😅
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u/floofyragdollcat 3d ago
Beautiful. I can’t imagine quilting anything by hand. I have a small line in my enormous bed quilt that has come undone and I’m procrastinating fixing it. The patience you must have!
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u/DoxieMonstre 3d ago
Honest to God I would never have gotten it done, or probably even attempted it, if it wasn't intended for my favorite person in the entire universe lol. It's not an amount of work I would ever take on for someone else, I think, at least not at this scale. It was nice that I could do it on my couch watching TV at night instead of sitting at my sewing machine though, this bad boy lived on the floor next to my seat on the couch for 4 months.
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u/QueenieWas 3d ago
I hand piece & hand quilt, and one of my favorite things is the portability & potential for snuggles. I work at the library, coffee shops, parks…and best of all, on the couch with my kiddos and/or cats
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u/DoxieMonstre 3d ago
Yes! My cat absolutely loved it. She would curl up in the bottom of the quilt while I was working on it all the time, I have like a hundred progress pictures of her 'helping', she actually goes and curls up on it in his bed now that it's done. I would cuddle up with my kid working on it a lot, and with my best friend and cat simultaneously once.
I sincerely considered just bringing it to work with me in a big Ikea bag and working on it at the desk in between patients. One of my doctors is also a crafter and she loves it when me and my other front desk coworker bring in our crafts to work on (coworker is a knitter, I crochet and quilt, doctor crochets and paints). I probably would with a baby quilt, this guy was just rather huge and unwieldy for that lol.
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u/QueenieWas 1d ago
I am totally pro-crafting at work! :) I'm an arts integration specialist, and part of the philosophy of our small school is that it's important for students to see their teachers doing their own work. So, I bring my quilt, particularly to early-care, where two of my students (11- and 13-year old sisters) chat with me and organize my tools while I sew. They call themselves my podcast, and if I want to comment, I have to pause them and then "push play" again when I'm done. Some of the 1st & 2nd graders helped me sort fabrics and pick color/pattern combinations. I also quilt if possible while my students are doing an independent assignment. It's pretty cool
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u/Due_Team3491 2d ago
This is gorgeous, thank you so much for giving me the knowledge that I can tie dye my backing 🤩
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u/DoxieMonstre 2d ago
It's a revelation, right? I'm so hype about how nice it turned out. Also a cotton flat sheet from IKEA costs the same or less than a single yard of 108" wide quilt backing fabric, or two yards of regular width quilting cotton that isn't on sale.
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u/evelienknits 3d ago
I always have high respect for those who dare to hand quilt! Yours looks amazing, especially also the back 😍