hi i need help in knowing what problems i may come across when i quilt, my 87" square. i wont to quilt around each 6" square.
any help would be great. do i make up my own stencils or buy pre-made.

thx jane

Hi Jane, Great job on the quilt, I'm sure your son will love it. Are you hand quilting or machine quilting it? Did you want a particular pattern around each square? If not then you won't need a stencil. If you are machine quilting maybe just stitch in the ditch around each square or just a meander if you are FMQ in between the squares on the skulls.

hi yes i mean to machine quilt. sorry forgot to say that. and yes wont the same pattern around each one. no stitching in ditch and i wont a nice patter to show on the back of the quilt. too..

Unless you can FMQ freehand, stencils might be an easier option. You can buy plastic quilting stencils in all sorts of designs, which might work out the best if you are doing a large quilt like yours, with the same design.
This article might help, or google "quilting designs"
http://crafts.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Fr...lting_Stencils

Nice work Jane. That looks like an excellent use for the pool table, too.

Personally, I wouldn't be brave enough to take on a quilt as big as yours on either my domestic machine or as a hand-quilting project, so good on you for rising to the challenge. Woody's suggestions look good to me.

That's a large quilt! I'm sure your son will wrap up in it for years to come! Nice work!

hi. funny enough it was my dh's suggestion i use it. it has a hard top on it and i wonted a larger ironing board and had thought of using it. he said go for it. so under the quilt is a thick plastic sheet so i can pin the quilt and under that it is an ironing board-the whole table. it is was wonderful to have to iron the quilt on.
on the subject of its size. i dont have one problem with it. weird. isn't it. doesn't faze me one bit. and its only my third one. other two where 20" x 30" and a sampler at 44" square- fmq'd that one.

How about crossed cutlass swords on each block. Trying to stay in theme here. Probably can't find a plactic template but he may be able to draw it for you or go to google images and I bet you can come up with something like that. You could adjust the size and cut it out of index paper or a file folder. You could probably get it to be one line quilting.

great quilt!

Great job!!!

Make sure you practice on a sandwich first, as it sounds like this will be your first fmq attempt. Maneuvering a quit that large will be a challenge, but doable, just take your time. Also, one of the best pieces of advice I was given regarding quilting the quilt is if it's not going to show up, just do something simple. So if the fabric is busy, and your thread blends, a meander pattern is a good choice. This will be something else to check when you do a practice sandwich. Great quilt, I'm sure your son will really like it!!

I love your skulls....need to do one for my eldest son...14 y/o......now I have inspiration!!!!

Do you have an embroidery machine? I have heard some using those for quilting - It would be neat to embroider the outline of a skull head in the black and read sections and then just do an overall pattern for the rest - just a thought.

Very pretty quilt, love the colors! My DH would kill me if I ever "misused" a pool table like that LOL! I think a basic, continuous line pattern for each square is a great idea. If you check out some of the online sites that sell the stencils, you will find the same pattern in different sizes, allowing you to fit the stencil to your area. There are several different methods of marking the pattern onto your quilt. FMQ on a domestic machine isn't easy if the quilt is large....I am working on a 112x112 and it's a bear sometimes, but am almost done.

Love your quilt!

BEAUTIFUL QUILT

BEAUTIFUL QUILT

BEAUTIFUL QUILT

I do one section at a time as I get that pounce stuff all over me if I try to punce the who thing at one time. If you can move your sewing machine next to that table, it might be easier to move the quilt around as there will be some pull on the fabric and that can be a mess. Big quilts are hard to work wiht when you have a small space to work in so maybe moving you machine to that table you have it on in the pictures, might be a lot easier.. Good luck, Huggies, Fay

I'm not very artistic so I would want to buy but if you can't find what you want or if you don't want to buy then make your own.

hi. love that idea. shall look into how i could do that.

hello, not a bad idea on moving the machine. thx i shall give that a try. jane

Nice quilt!

Great quilt. Scarry heads. :lol:

hi again, just visited the site. does the ultimate poweder really iron off !! so you put the stencil on pounce the powder on the stencil sew the design then iron the powder off. ? so no brushing washing is needed, is this really true?

What a great quilt! Because your quilting will not show up that well on the skull fabric I think I would do a meandering stitch around the blocks and then stitch in the ditch around your squares. You have a white border around the quilt and I would get a little fancier there. It will show up nicely on the white and being on the edge of the quilt it will be easier to accomplish.

You did a great job on your quilt! I applaud your for your attitude on doing the FMQ yourself. @ Woody: Thanks for the link to the free quilting stencils!!

It is a very pretty quilt.

I love your quilt. I'm looking for a quilt idea for my grandson who is graduating in the spring. I think yours might be my inspiration--I'll need OSU orange instead of the red. Thanks for sharing.

Love your fabric!!

no ideas here but wanted to say "LOVE THE QUILT". It's beautiful. But I'm curious why male teenagers always want black, red, white quilts?

My son wanted a quilt (my avatar) and it had to be these colors. I know of others who've made quilts for their teen sons - same colors.

I know he'll love it as much as my son loves his -- Great Job !!

Very beautiful quilt,I have to make my son one as big,
as yours,in the star fan pattern for his pool table.I am going, hand quilt it.

Awesome quilt!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbup:

Ahh, First...that is NOT a pool table, ok? It's a quilting table....sometimes we let the others in the house use it to knock balls into the thread catcher pockets...sometimes!

That said (LOL)...I would rethink the stitching around each block. I know you are thinking to save time/headaches...but cutting out the stabilizing of the quilt will most likely end up giving you more headaches than not stabilizing.
Does not need to be Stitch in the Ditch...use a zigzag (or, if you have it on your machine, a stitch that resembles an "
S" curve...just go over the outter block seam...across the row in one direction, and back across the next row in the oposite direction. Repeat down the quilt...then do the long seams. This will not only stabilize the quilt, it will give a "home" for each design motif...giving a nicer finish to the back, just my opinion...from having done many a quilt on my home machine...learning that shortcuts aren't really shortcuts.
the quilt is beautiful...your son will love it.

Oh, for design motifs...look at coloring book pages online..find some you like, that will be easy to do...print them, trace onto freezer paper, or Parchment paper (I like parchment, as it tears away nicely.

I lay the printed design on top of as many layers of the parchment paper (or use Golden threads if I have it), run through my sewing machine without thread...and pin those to my quilt and stitch over the punched designs. Tears off really easy (because of the holes to start & your stitiching holes..you find it starts ripping itself off as you stitch).

I use the above motif method even now on my longarm machine at times...when I need a special motif that I don't have in my files.

You know, you could just do the zigzag down the center of each sashing, instead of the seams of each block. that would give you a larger design motif area....just ignore the blocks and put the motif in the area each zigzag square creates.

You asked what problems you might encounter when doing this. Without stabilizing first, there will be sections of unquilted area on the backing...may cause the backing to shift and depending on if it's a solid or print...may be really visible. You may get pleats in some of the motifs, etc. Stabilizing will help prevent all these.

You could just pin with safety pins, every corner of each block, and in the sashing every 6 inches or so....and remove as you go...that may work...especially if you don't want to segregate each motif.

may I recomend outline quilting? that will show up nicely on the back, and complement the top, too.

If you have a picture or pattern that you like, you could trace it onto tracing paper, machine stitch the tracing paper without thread, and then use a pouncer wiped across the tracing paper (over a quilt block) to evenly transfer the pattern onto the quilt blocks.

Love your quilt! I don't know if I would try to machine quilt on such a large quilt w/o a long arm or such. Good luch on what ever you do. I always use stencils and mark before I quilt.

This design would lend itself to 1/4 inch spaced straight stitching. I did this on a log cabin I made and I really liked the outcome.:)

Jane, Your son will love this quilt fabric ! I like you approach to stencil FMQing I can't draw stick people so trying to just let go and do design. My throat is too small to be very creative with designs so this is the only alternative to hand quilting. Charity quilts only want MQing so I'm forced to do MQing. I've thought of using this method too and just pinning in place. Thanks for sharing this with us and happy quilting always. :-D :-D :-D