Brainstorming
 

Hi ya'll, hoping for some new eyes on this - this is going to be a long post, btw. I'm working on designing a full-length quilt for my king size bed - I've just always liked the look and I love making bed quilts. This is going to be a hugely ambitious project, though. It's going to be fun!

Anywho, I'm trying to decide what to do with the pillow area for this quilt, and also what to do with the corners on the second border (from the inside.) Pic is attached (I hope.) (Pop down to the end for the summary of this long bit.)

Going from the inside out, the medallion is a variation on a Mariner's Compass with rings of flying geese. I'm leaning toward figuring out how I would need to piece these, but if that seems to be too hard I'm not ruling out applique. The dotted lines on the center portion of the pic line out the pillow tuck, which is just going to be quilted with nautical designs (a la sailors' tattoos, perhaps). Above that is the pillow area - I'm not real sure what I want to do with that (see below). The dashed lines (and lighter color) are fitted to the top of my bed.

The first border is going to be just a simple strip, probably mitered corners.

The second border is going to be 8x8 inch sampler blocks in coordinating colors, which is what brings about the wonky corner pieces. I could make my life so much easier by making that border 10" wide, but I think 10x10 is too big for a border. (I'm also open to suggestions for blocks for that border - I've got to choose something like 40 of them or something.) I haven't decided whether I want to keep the blocks to compass and star style blocks, or go ahead and use regular blocks as well (i.e. card trick, 4-patch, etc.) I'm having some trouble deciding how I want to handle to weird fit, and I'm looking for ideas other than using fewer blocks and sashing them.

The third border is just a 2" wide curling ribbon border, and I'd like to keep that width.

The last border is where I'm getting complicated, and I'm not sure if I can explain what's in my brain and make sense. I want this to be a full-length quilt, which by definition drops to within 1/2" of the floor. Problem is that I'm planning on some pretty dense quilting on the top, and I don't really have a good way to figure out how much shrinkage I'll have because of that. So what I came up with is that I'll make the top out to the third border, then quilt and bind. (It will basically be a finished quilt at this point.) Then once I've got the final measurement for that much, I'll figure out how much length I need on the final border and make the wedges individually (quilted and bound.) Then I'll use either embroidery floss or lace thread (whichever looks the best and seems strongest) and sew the wedges together and to the quilt with a loopy kind of stitch so there's a little space between the pieces - 1/4" or so - so it looks a little bit lacy. Triangle pieces will be the same as the bg fabric on the top (and in the 2nd border, though that isn't shown,) and if I can find the right fabrics, I'll probably fussy cut the dresden wedges from...some kind of fabric. Not sure about that part yet. But that will give me a pretty border at the perfect length. Theoretically.

~*~ IN SUMMARY ~*~

All of this nonsense is to ask the following two questions:

1. What could I/should I/would you do with the weird corner pieces in border #2? (If my math is right, I've got 6" to fudge on the sides and 2" on the bottom if I don't have the weird pieces.) I've thought of sashing the blocks (and using correspondingly fewer blocks,) but I'm trying to see if there are any other ideas out there before I decide.

2. The common thing to do would be to use wedges of the mariner's compass in the pillow section, but if I don't really like that. I'm kind of thinking of something like applique wavy lines (i.e. blowing wind kind of look,) but this is a very vague and nebulous idea. Anyone got any others?

And another question that pops to mind as I'm writing this:

3. In border #2 (the sampler block border), should I/would you use just compass and star blocks, or should/would all kinds of blocks be fair game?

Total size of the quilt is 130" x 130".

Whew! That took longer than I thought. What do y'all think? I've got plenty of time to fiddle with the design - it's probably going to take me all year to save enough for the fabric. And I'm really hoping the picture posts.

Quite a challenge....I myself have decided that any bed quilt I now make I will make pillow shams to match rather that the traditional fold over pillows....reason for this is...I purchased from goodwill two lovely heavily quilted gold colored shams( store bought) that I have used on two of my bed quilts....liked the look so,well, have made a set of them for a scrappy nine patch/snowball quilt that I made a long time ago....still had some of the border fabric...phew! Enough for the shams! So that will be what I do from now on....

It will be spectacular .............I was wondering if you can draw, what about in the pillow area doing applique of, I don't know what its called but old wooden ships had carved figures of women usually at the bow. Using two of them facing each other. Just using like brown fabric, and outlining with emb. floss. Of course size and scale is important........just a nautical thought.
And thanks for the prayer...........I needed that too.........

I have a question about the size. Assuming your king sized bed is 78 inches wide, that would give you a 26 inch drop on each side. That seems kind of much. Also, with such a huge quilt, you will end up with A LOT dragging on the floor at the corners. You might think about angling those corners a whole pile more. Try laying a blanket on part of your bed, with the projected drop and see what you think. BTW ambitious project but those are the most fun.

calla, Now THAT is a brilliant idea. I can't draw for beans, but I do alright on a computer or I could probably get a friend to do it. Thanks!

GingerK, atm I've got the corners rounded w/the radius starting at the corner of border #3 (the gray bits around that border are supposed to be empty space, sorry). My CG software claims that would put the corner drop at about 29", which still may be too much. Side drop is 25", measured from the seam on the mattress to about 1" above the floor - my mattress top measures 80" from seam to seam. I imagine the extra couple are due to the cushioning on the mattress.

I am going to test that drape with a bit of muslin, but since I'm doing that last border at the very end, I can always fudge it if I feel the need.

P.S. I calculated the length as 30" for pillows + 15" for pillow tuck + 60" for the main bed +25" drop. The extra length in the pillow section is b/c we have high loft pillows, and the 60" I measured off from the bottom of the pillows to the end of the bed.

I got nothing except anxious to see it when finished.

My question back is can you quilt 130" square quilt?? I believe that is a bit larger than the frame of most LAQ. I like the way you have eliminated the wide border on the pillow top but recheck your measurement to make sure you measurements are correct. You might do the same quarter compasses in both of the top corners of the quilt. Good Luck

Are you planning on quilting this yourself or sending it out? How good are you if you do it yourself? I would be tempted to leave the pillow area plain as far as piecing is concerned and do some really fancy quilting in that area. But then I enjoy doing the quilting.
As for piecing, how about a couple of stripes of flying geese across the width of the quilt in the same colors as those around the compass. Maybe each with a narrow border of the gray (used in the outer border) on each side.