Queen Size Quilt Sandwich
 

Hello Everyone,
I thought some of you folks would be able to give me some input on this. I am getting ready to baste together a queen size quilt for my son and daughter in law. It will be for a little tear drop camper is almost has completed.

The top fabric is a good quality 100% cotton, and the backing is a anti-pill fleece which is what they wanted. I also have the queen size batting that is the Mountain Mist, soft, medium loft , 100% polyester.

Will these three parts be too much? I will be quilting this queen size on my regular Brother machine with the short neck. Yes, I know, it will be a real challenge. He wants it all made by me so I won't be sending it off anywhere.

The top I cut in 10" squares and sewed them together for a solid color top, and the back will be sewn together as needed also with the two large pieces of the fleece to make it work too. It will be the other solid color they wanted, and then they want it to turn over wide onto the front for the binding.

I will be adding one of the fabric license plates that says Tennessee on it to put on the back. Tennessee is where we all live, and where he is building his tear drop so that makes sense.

Also, with the whole top being his chosen color of lime green, and the fleece backing being his chosen color of a rich medium blue, what color thread do you all think would be the prettiest for the top quilting? I can either quilt the top with the same lime green thread or use the color blue like the back is to quilt the top and have it enhance.

When I go around bringing over the back fleece to the top to form the binding after it is sewn, I want to then use a fancy stitch around it to look pretty. He wants me to embroider my name on some part of the binding on the front. I will add their name too, and the date.

I am so sorry for all these questions. I didn't plan on putting all this on here, but decided to give you the picture of it through my words and see what you all think.

Many of you are so much more experienced than me.
I have quilted a full size quilt on my short home machine, and got through it. I bought some special quilting needles for my machine to do this one.

Thank you!!!

What I have done is divide the top into three sections, and the back and the batt. sandwich as normal and quilt the three seperately. Leaving an inch or two unquilted on the two inside seams. Put the center and one side together then finish quilting. Then the center and the last side. You are making a quilt as you go out of just three sections.

It sounds like it will be really thick and hot with the batting and the fleece. I would eliminate the batting when using fleece. I have quilted a queen size quilt on my standard machine, it can be done. I started in the center and worked my way around, rolling the extra in the neck. Since the top is in 10" squares, you could vary the quilting in each square to give the lime green some variety in texture or change the thread to a different color in each square.

Wow, thank you all. Great suggestions.

KalamaQuilts, I had not thought of the top in 3 pieces. I will remember that one to try sometime since I have already sewn the 10"squares.

I also was thinking of leaving out the batting. I know it's for a camper where they may be out where it is cold, but I don't think I could get that much thickness done very well with this size quilt.

Toverly, that is a good idea on quilting with thread in each square too. It would make the texture so much more interesting.

Tartan, I don't plan on using liquid basting. I have lung issues and worry about breathing it in. How would you baste? Maybe using some big stitch throughout.

When I quilted my queen size on my domestic machine, I laid the top, wool batting and backing together, but pinned only the centre section. Before starting to quilt, I cut my batting into 5 sections . I started quilting at the centre section where it was pinned. When I got close to the edges, I stopped, refastened another piece of batting, quilted that and the reattached the third piece of batting until I was finished. It worked really well since I wasn't always working with the bulk of that batting. This technique is from a Marti Mitchell book. If you wish, pm me.

Unless you particularly want it to be super warm, I'd leave the batting out. Fleece is a nice backing without the weight involved but it is warm. Then, too, without batting there is no possibility that a center "layer" can shift and, if you like the idea, it would be acceptable to simply tie this quilt. If you want quilting, it won't require the standard width between quilting lines. Fleece makes for a nice backing with sometimes more possibilities for finishing than the traditional quilt!

I just finished quilting a small quilt that had lots of thread changes. I don't think I'll do that one again. I used black in the bobbin, so didn't have to change that thread every time. I ended up spending about two hours burying thread tails.

Try gray for your quilting thread. It might just blend in perfectly.

Another option would be to use green in the upper and blue in the bobbin. You probably will have to make adjustments to the tension, but with fleece on the back, the top thread might just bury itself without much adjustment.

bkay

My husband loves a thick quilt, and I made him one with all those layers. The less quilting, the more warmth! So, instead of tying, I used a tacking stitch and made a design several inches apart. Go by what the batting recommends for distance. This way, there's plenty of loft and puff. It has held together very well. Still very warm!

I would not use batting if I am using fleece. I always think about the laundering. This would be a tough job for any home washer and dryer. I can see it getting twisted and distorted.