They are just beautiful. I need to be a better quilter before I take on that.

This year's Best of Show winner at Paducah is a whole cloth quilt. The design is made with long arm machine quilting using bright colored threads.

I had always thought wholecloth quilts originated in Wales, but according to this site they began in France in the Provence region in the 17th century. They have some interesting links.
http://www.hthcelebrationquilts.com/...lthistory.html

I've always wanted to make one by hand - now you've got me thinking again! Where in my "to do" list should I put it??

Quiltmaniac, thank you for the link! This article summarizes all the important points in the history of wholecloth. I've never done a boutis but they are very beautiful! My main interest goes to the British tradition including the Welsh one.

me too, it's on my list

This is so beautiful!!

In the 1970's there were beautiful child's panels to hand quilt. You would not cut up a great overall picture. We used to sit in the faculty room and handquilt them for everyone's babies. I had forgotten.
Thanks for jogging the memory!

wow, beautiful!

wow that looks like so much work. how do you decide on the quilting you want to do and how long does making one of those take?

Well, this is diffucult to say. Sometimes I see a pattern in a book that I like or an idea just comes to my head. The color of the fabric often "speaks" to me and it seems to be clear that for example a special kind of green MUST have these Welsh patterns or the pink HAS to be quilted with feathers. I don't know...I don't plan my quilts so much. The blue one of which you see the picture here is made with only one stencil.
I made this little quilt a few years ago and I'm not quite sure how long this took. I think about 4 weeks full time quilting or so.