Is McTavishing appropriate for bed quilts?
 

I just watched this Youtube video by Leah Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv6TqdwjiXo

and she mentions that this is for wall quilts. I imagine this is because Leah Day is working on a very small scale and so much thread will stiffen the quilt. I have Karen McTavish's book and DVD and am looking forward to experimenting with the technique. However, I'm into making bed quilts and child quilts, not wallhangings.

Has anyone done McTavishing on a bed quilt? How did it turn out?

I took her class. It was a lot of fun and she is an excellent instructor. The cartoon hair quilting is dense quilting. I did a small wallhanging and it was very firm when quilted all over.

I made baby quilts for my niece's twins last summer. She picked the fabrics and design--very modern. She specifically asked for straight-line quilting, and showed me a picture with 1/4" spacing. I was skeptical, but didn't want to argue with her because she was on bed rest for six months! They are great for play time and to use as coverlets, but not cuddly soft. Since babies aren't supposed to sleep with sheets or quilts anymore, it didn't matter. She uses them all the time.

After washing, they are definitely not as pliable as regularly spaced quilts, but I would use this type of quilt as a spread for display on an adult bed if I wanted the texture of dense quilting.

Sure! just make sure it is balanced with the rest of the quilting.

Since babies aren't supposed to sleep with sheets or quilts anymore, it didn't matter.

Sorry to ask a stupid question, but what are they supposed to sleep on? Not a bare mattress, I'm sure, but what?

I have used it in plenty of bed quilts. Just understand, McTavishing was developed as a back fill to make other quilting motifs pop. So use it accordingly. Sparingly to make a motif pop. Additionally the batting makes more of a difference in how stiff a quilt gets when laying down a lot of thread. Use wool batting with a very fine thread like silk or invisifil and you won't get any stiffness. In all of these below, except the calla lilly, I used double batting and polyester thread. The Calla had 80/20 batt. Here are pics of examples where and how I have used it in bed quilts.

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I love a quilt that had McTavishing , so make what you like.

OMG feline fanatic your quilting is so lovely. 0;-)

My DD, a RN, just had a baby, nine months old now. She uses bumper pads and covers for the baby because she has the monitor in the bed that sounds an alarm if no breathing was detected after 30 seconds. She has two of the monitor pads in the crib to cover the surface in case the baby scooches into a corner. If you don't use the monitor then nothing is suppose to be in the crib for baby to bury his face into. Not even a stuffed toy. Some parents don't use the breathing monitor so there is a danger of the baby suffocating so the Drs say nothing in the crib and baby sleeps face up. I can't imagine not using a breathing monitor for an infant. I wish they were available when my kids were babies. I would have slept more and worried less.

I checked the one I have in the crib at my house (I keep him during the day) : It's SafetoSleep Mobile Sleep and Baby Breathing Movement Monitor. Amazon has them: http://www.amazon.com/Safe-To-Sleep-.../dp/B00BDCNSXA [h=1][/h][h=1][/h]