cjsews

A cheater cloth is fabric with a quilt pattern printed on it. All you have to do is layer and quilt it. No piecing needed.

Quiltah Mama

Doug, no backing out now dude, no cheater quilt tops. LOL..... The idea of layer cake quilt square top is an excellent one, lots more choices of fabrics. Good luck, and as I'm sure you have figured out by now on here, we love pictures....

SusieQOH

I keep following this thread because you're so funny!
Typical boy- I have 3 so I know boys haha

klswift

Your thoughts are good,but, your ambition is pushing a bit outside what you can do - for the first quilt. Save that plan for a bit later. Use a more basic pattern (watch some Missouri Star Quilt CO or Quilt in a Day videos). You could use an embroidered piece in the center and add blocks around it. BUT, you should get the piece embroidered by a person with an embroidery machine. Use cottons or a cotton/poly fabrics. When you put the top, batting and back on, you will be surprised at the weight. Also, look at doing a throw size (he will be thrilled with any size you make!). You will need to do the 'quilting' on your machine and it will be a lot for you to do the first time (you'll learn the tricks as you go along). You can do a simple quilting like a curvy line down thru the sashing, echo stitch around the design or simply some diagonal lines, all depending on your design. Start simple, you do not have to do an allover free motion. Your older machines (which are often better than new fangled ones!) will be a bit limited in what tricky things they can do. Work within their limitations and you'll be fine. Just stay simple and you won't get frustrated and you will finish it. Do work hard on keeping your seams at 1/4", it will pay off when you are assembling. do not get hung up on perfection! You are usually not making mistakes, you are adding design elements!

L'il Chickadee

Okay, won't be saying yes or no to your idea or what to do.
Just a true story. My daughter moved to a beach town some years ago and decided to make a beach quilt. Rugged heavy duty quilt built to take some beach trips. She decided to use cut up blue jeans and some pieces of heavy duck fabric and just sew together squares. It was her first go at a quilt and her last. She managed the first squares bravely, dealt with tension problems, looping thread on the back of her seams, etc. Then putting the strips together became increasingly difficult as the quilt top became quite heavy and hard to sew. Toward the end she was pushing the fabrics through the needle while her husband pulled from the other side. I think she used flannel for a quilt back and no batting. It was not a good experience, more of an ordeal, ruined her sewing machine, and left her not wanting to sew anything ever again. She is not up for Tough Mudder events or the Pacific Crest Trail like my other kids, but she is very determined and got it done. So they have a beach quilt and the team effort it took to make it. What it looks like doesn't matter.
Bottom line: It took a lot longer to make than planned, and was a lot harder to do than planned.

Dougstermd

i had a quilt as a kid that my grandmother and her mother made. The story was that some how the men had gotten a huge load of scraps from a denim factory or something. Hard to know how they really came across the material those old coal miners were very inventive. It was a super heavy quilt I suppose like a weighted blanket. Everyone in the family had a couple of them mine was super warm and cozy and actually soft by the time I got to using it. That was my premise for using heavy fabric.

I would like to do most of the stitching with either my model 27 treadle or my 15-91. I also have a singer 211 G 165 that is a commercial walking foot machine that I bet would be perfect for the actual quilting part. I haven’t actually figured out how to thread the 211 G yet. That thing is a beast I think it would actually sew thin sheet metal. It’s well suited for a 140/22 needle with Tex 135 thread much more than would be required for a simple quilt. I guess I have derailed this whole thread enough for now. I’m off work tomorrow I might head to hobby lobby and see what they have.

what I have learned from the constructive criticism on this thread is that making a quilt might be way harder than imagined. I inquired about a quilt pattern last night and the company contacted me back and said that was not a quilt I should consider making for my first quilt.

Im a helicopter mechanic I have been wrenching on airplanes for 30 years really is a quilt that complicated. I will let y’all know my answer I a week or so.

Dougstermd

[ATTACH=CONFIG]607407[/ATTACH]This is the dog pillow approximately 24 inches by 48 inches. I made on my 1910 singer model 27 all treadled. That is a duck cloth top with marine grade vinyl on the bottom. Yes it was nearly free motion sewing but the feed dogs did move the material quite well with a little help. If I had a helper on the back side of the machine it would have been very easy. I know this is a super simple project.

wildyard

My two cents worth is to suggest you consider doing what I do and using fleece to back your quilt top. Then you won't need to use batting and it will be much easier to quilt with only 2 layers.

Innov8R

Everyone starts somewhere! Did you know that they make fabric in military designs? Instead of a complicated pieced patchwork quilt, you could purchase panels or prints that would be right for the occasion.
https://bearpawquilting.com/cgi-bin/...es=0&lastmenu=

There is something called a whole cloth quilt--a top and bottom with batting in between. The quilting would not have to be fancy. So we are talking top print, batting, and backing fabric basted together into a sandwich and some quilting to hold them together. Binding is not difficult.

Little Lulu

I, too, would not design my own quilt. My very first quilt(s) was Yellow Brick Road. I made two in a short time for my new twin great-nephews. It was very simple, and the pattern gave directions/measurement from a crib to a king size. I even quilted it myself on a domestic machine using straight lines. I would use a combination of reds, whites and blues fabrics and then complete both the border and the backing with a patriotic fabric. You want to make it simple so as you can see results. I promise the receiver will LOVE it just as much as if it was something complex. Doing something simple will assist you in also enjoying the process, seeing progress and not feeling stress. Good luck!