Whole Cloth Quilt
 

I want to make a wedding quilt for my grandson and his bride. She loves all white and I was thinking of making a whole cloth quilt out of white fabric and use white thread for the embroidery and quilting. Most of the patterns I have found are for squares of fabric that you join together and I would like to use a solid top for a queen size quilt. I need any help or suggestions I can get. I have until March to have the quilt finished.

You might be interested in this page from The Stencil Company which has beautiful preprinted whole cloth quilts. I love this company and have bought their products for years!

http://quiltingstencils.com/preprint...ll-queen-size/

Jan in VA

I agree with Jan. I love Hollis Turnbow's stamped wholecloth designs. I'm working on hand quilting a crib-sized one for my nephew. http://www.christianlanequilters.com...age/590515.htm

Losie, I think I have the perfect suggestion for you. "Machine Quilting Whole Cloth Quilts" with Cindy Needham is a Craftsy class that I think you could benefit greatly from. I actually just joined the class and I think you would love it. Cindy has been quilting for 45 years. Once you watch the videos, you will probably be inspired and have a great idea on how to proceed with confidence. Cindy highly recommends hand died sued cotton made by Cherry Wood. She says that she uses it more than any other fabric. She also likes Duponi silk a lot, and Radiance by Robert Kaufman which is half silk/ half cotton. She talks about stabilizing it with a light weight woven fusible to prevent it from being too slippery to work with. She even suggests a product to take the stains out of vintage linens that seems to work like magic. I think this class would be perfect for you.

Another whole cloth quilter to gain inspiration from is Karen McTavish.

https://www.amazon.com/Whitework-Qui...quilting+books

I would not recommend using Dupioni for a bed quilt. This fabric is usually reserved for wall hangings and show quilts. The silk blend radiance is slightly more suitable but is very pricey and is recommended to only hand wash or dry clean. So I would not consider it for a quilt that is going to be well used and loved.

Since I am just beginning to learn about the materials and methods used in whole cloth quilts (which is why I started taking a class), I am curious--why could you not use Dupioni for a bed quilt? Is it something that just is never, ever used for a bed quilt? And if so, is it because it is slippery? And if that is the case and you wanted to use it, couldn't you just use a different backing that wasn't slippery? When I think of a quilt, I think of cotton, so just the idea of using other fabrics is new to me. But I would think silk, and especially Dupioni, would be luxurious if it were used in a whole cloth bed quilt.

I will agree that dupioni is luxurious and beautiful but it is not well suited for a wholecloth bed quilt and the wear and tear associated with a bed quilt that will be used on an everyday basis. First there is the price to consider at over $20 per yard in the US. It only comes in a 54" width and the nature of the fabric shows seams very obviously due to the slubs that are part of the fabric. If you don't match it up just right the seam would be an unsightly distraction even if the piece was heavily quilted. The light refracts off the fabric differently so you need to be sure you get it just right if you are piecing it and even then you may get a whole cloth that appears to be two different shades of white (or whatever color you decide to use). You will more than likely have to purchase much more fabric to make sure and even then I'm not sure you can piece it side by side without the light refraction issue. The care requirements for it are hand wash or dry clean only but I know of several quilters who have had disastrous results with dupioni bleeding and fading or losing color in some spots and not in others and that was from only blocking the quilt with water after completion. And there is no escaping marking for a whole cloth quilt. You must mark it in some way. Although I suppose you could attempt marking it with a Hera type marker to avoid having to submerge it in water to remove marks.

Bethanne Nemish ruined her award winning quilt "The Shell Collectors" trying to resolve a bleed issue from soaking and blocking to remove her marks and the dupioni ended up disintegrating from all the different things she tried to get the bleed out. Granted this was not a wholecloth, she had pieced other colors of dupioni silk in the wall hanging. She ended up remaking the quilt and it went on to win numerous shows.

I am of the opinion if you are going to go through all the labor intensive efforts of creating a whole cloth bed sized quilt (as opposed to a wall hanging) you want to create an heirloom that can be enjoyed, used and possibly even passed down for generations.

Dupioni is indeed gorgeous fabric but it is meant for high end applications like bridal wear, accent pieces, and show pieces like wall hangings or show quilts.

Thank you Feline Fanatic. You have given me a lot to think about. I think whole cloth quilts are beautiful. I am also interested in trapunto. Years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, I purchased a instruction booklet on how to make baby blankets. (I crochet and knit.) Included in the book was a trapunto whole cloth blanket that was buttercream and I believe that they used nylon tricot to make it. It was just the most beautiful blanket. That was the first time I had ever seen such a quilt. After all these years I am planning on making a whole cloth quilt. I'm interested to hear tips from experienced quilters. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. It was helpful.

Another wonderful bit of "in the know" from you, Jan. You are priceless. What pretty WCQ patterns.
peace

Makes a lot of sense to go with the pre-print as marking would get extremely tedious before you even start! On my bucket list!!