I dream of doing this type of quilt what is the best way to start out? Purchase a pre printed top or just do it myself?? Thank you in advance! Jade

ask borntoquilt -this lady does stunning work. I am sure she could help you with your questions. She did answer my question. Now she lives overs seas so our time is different.

If you can draw the design it would be more unique to do it yourself. However, remember a whole cloth quilt is a BIG canvas to cover.
I personally have not been pleased with the printing on the whole cloths. It is sometimes difficult to remove.

Check out the preprinted on The Stencil Co web site.
These are printed in wash out ink. Suggest you start with wallhanging size and work up to the queen size. That is, unless you are now a hand quilter and want the larger size.
Or, you can design your own by using stencils for major motifs and connect with grids.

Their sizes range from a small one to learn to bigger ones, up to king or queen size. The marker washes out very quickly with just water once the quilting is done. I highly recommend it.

Oh maybe I should do more research is whole cloth something you have to hand quilt or is it ok to machine quilt?

Whole cloth originated in Europe. There are stunning examples of the old sort in France and England that I have seen. Many books are written about this sort of quilting - I would suggest that you borrow from the library and read up on it. They were originally done by hand, but the more modern ones are done by machine, so you could do both. There is an American quilter who does similar work to the 400 year old Durham quilts from England, except that she does it by machine. Her name is Linda McTavish and she calls her method "McTavishing", I believe. Perhaps you could get info on her methods as well.

Hi Jade!

All the others have already given some great hints to start with a wholecloth and I can only add some of my thoughts to it.

Making a wholecloth means you mostly work with structure and structure contrasts, not so much with color and color contrasts. Every pencil line you can draw on a piece of paper you can also quilt! So creating your own designs is not so difficult - you can just turn you sketches on paper into wholecloth designs if you want. The important thing is to create contrast between open quilted areas and heavily quilted areas letting the motifs stand out.


The easiest way to start is purchasing a preprinted top, so you don't have to care for the design at the beginning. There are many beautiful tops available. I always suggest to start with a pillow cover or a wall hanging, as Holice already mentioned - you will have your success quickly!

I only do hand quilting, but you can also quilt my machine. Of course the traditional quilts are all made by hand. You find lots of information about wholecloths especially from Wales, England (look for North Country or Durham Quilts)and from France (Boutis) and I'm sure the picutures will inspire you a lot.