Two sided quilts question
 

I was just admiring Feline Fanatic's amazing Christmas quilt in the pictures. How is that done? Do you quilt both sides individually and then put them together?

I would think you can quilt the three layers as usual, just use some sort of overall pattern that will work for both sides. I'm about to try it with two vintage quilt tops I have.

i did a two sided with these. hour glass on one side. quilted through all layers.

She explains in her post how she quilted through all the layers on her Innova. She did a terrific job on it.

This is very interesting. Hope there will be more posts on this. I have so many tops and would love to quilt them back to back.

i've done it two different ways.

the first time i lined up all the seams and intersections from both sides by sticking straight pins through and then basting into place. then i used quilting that worked well with the block designs on both sides.

the second time, i just made sure both sides were properly aligned at the borders, accurately squared off, and smooth to the batting from both sides. i also did my best to make sure the blocks on each side were laying properly within the layout of their respective tops. i spray basted both sides, as well. then i used an edge-to-edge motif so none of it had to line up or fall specifically anywhere on either side.

the first method is infinitely more tedious.

the second works well. i'd recommend not using complex blocks on both sides. complex on one side; very simple on the reverse. that way, if you decide on fancy-shmancy quilting that enhances the complex side, it will also look great on the back. :)

I'm waiting to see what Feline says about her quilt too.....

I have tried all the above techniques and QAYG. The first thing I tried was quilting the 2 separate tops using thin battings, then quilting those together. That works, but makes for a thicker, heavier (and warmer) quilt.

Easiest for me was lining up front and back accurately then using a big (not tiny, intricate) overall quilt design.
Next easiest- QAYG.

Kalama Quilts does lots of double sided quilts too....I wonder what her fave technique is.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]610857[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]610856[/ATTACH]When I did each of my two double sided quilts, I chose my quilting for the side I considered the 'front' and let the stitches fall where they may on the back. On the one pictured, the echo stitching around flowers on a 'front' became a design element on the 'back'.

Great quilt! You did a nice job. Thanks for sharing.

Ha! I looked at that and looked at that this morning. I swear it looked like each side was quilted specifically for that pattern. Eventually, though I saw that the quilting is done to enhance the "top" top - the one with the deer and hearts on it. There was a shot where I could see that there are quilted hearts showing on the bottom of the star that is on the right of the "back" top.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

I have done two - sided, but they did not have any custom quilting, just an overall panto (I quilt by check),so it was not nearly as clever looking.