Hello!
I'll start off by saying about a year or two ago, I was going to start making my very first quilt without a pattern because I was planning on just making a simple quilt with a binding and I was considering putting some hand applique on it. Getting frustrated from trying to figure out how many squares I actually needed, I cut out what I thought I needed and gave up once I tried to draft the layout out on paper. I just tossed the fabric all in a drawer to be forgotten about since then.
Recently I watched a movie and the main character has a lovely puff quilt and it reminded me of my own quilt and quickly thought hey, I could make a puff quilt out of all those blocks I cut.. but how do I do it? I did some research and found instructions, the main way people seem to be making it now is to make the top square smaller than the bottom and to pintuck the larger piece to leave room to stuff it. Personally I don't like this method, I don't think it looks good since the tucks make the quilts look a bit amateur once it's all together in my personal opinion.
So! My question.. What is the best way of going about this? I was thinking of just sewing all the squares together, putting a very thick batting(possibly two layers?) in between the top and backing and then quilting around each square to make them appear puffy. I got this idea from seeing
this quilt but I don't want to use yarn, I'm thinking possibly embroidery floss or invisible thread. Also I don't think I want to do a binding, does this mean I would have to ladder stitch(or some other stitch, I guess) all the way around once I'm finished or just sew it shut before I start quilting?