Baltimore Cheater practice quilt(s) and lessons learned
I purchased what was supposed to be a 90x108" cheater cloth on eBay with the intention of using it to practice different skills on my longarm. Without thinking too much about where I was going with this project, I loaded it up (with a poly batt and bleached muslin backing) and started quilting. I practiced outlining the motifs in the fake applique, tried to think of different ways to fill in the white spaces, decided to leave the fake sashing unquilted. When I was done, I took it off the longarm and started thinking... what am I going to do with this thing??? The dimensions turned out to be 84x118, instead of the 90x108 that was in the eBay ad. (I didn't measure before I started.) Not good dimensions for a bed, not that I had really planned to use it on a bed. DH suggested cutting it in half, and I thought that would be a good idea - so I cut it. I swear I counted twice (counting blocks rather than measuring inches) but I cut in the wrong spot. Oh well, the big piece that remained was a nice shape and size - but the smaller piece was too long and skinny, so I cut it in two. I wound up with 3 quilts. Still not sure what I'll do with them... Two are good sizes for baby quilts. The big one is about 70x82.
The first picture is the gigantic quilt before I started cutting it up. If I had thought about this ahead of time I might have cut it up before quilting and added some borders to come up with better finished sizes, but the real purpose of the exercise was to get some much-needed practice on the longarm. Now I feel like I'm ready to tackle an appliqued quilt (if only I had one to work on).
Just in case anyone is wondering - I was actually pretty happy with the quality of the cheater cloth. I have washed the finished quilts, and there was absolutely no problem with the dyes running. (I was worried about that, since I usually prewash, but I didn't this time.) The cheater cloth cost about $25 including shipping.