Do You Make Quilts to Use on Top of Your Beds?
 

I have seen quilts used as "bedspreads" on twin-size beds only. I have king-size and a queen-size beds in my home. I'd like to show off my quilts by using them on top of the sheets and blankets. On the quilts I have made so far, they extend just a few inches over the mattress, so they are not large enough to use as a bedspread.

* Do you use quilts in this way?
* If so, how large do you recommend for a king-size or queen-size quilt that will be used on top of the bed?
* Do you have any problem with fitting a large quilt onto a longarm machine or in the washing machine?
(The dogs sleep with me, so I wash the bed coverings a lot!)

Traditionally, quilts were never meant to go all the way to the floor or even cover the box spring. So yes I use my quilts all the time to only cover the top of the mattress and extend only a few inches down the sides. Few of my quilts cover my king size mattress. But this is not a hard fast rule and is dictated by personal preference. Many quilters are fine using as I do and many would much prefer the quilt be like a bedspread and extend all the way to the floor and have ample length for a pillow tuck.

As far as extra large quilts fitting the longarm, well that all depends if it is a rack setup or a sitdown set up. With sit down there is no limit to size but with a rack setup you are limited by the size of your rack. I only have a 10 ft rack (120" measured on the outside). I lose approximately 6" for the side supports and an additional 10" or so for my machines width. So the absolute widest I can quilt would be 100". I have loaded wider but when I do I have no room on the sides to get at my machine bed to change bobbins, oil and test tension. Additionally I have no way to put the side clamps on so I won't take on anything wider than 100". Length is no problem. If your longarmer or your longarm has a larger rack you can obviously do wider quilts. I have never seen any rack set up offered wider than 14'. A 14' rack should allow one to very easily quilt a quilt as wide as 150", possibly even a tad more.

As far as washers that also depends on a few variables. Your WM capacity, how high loft batting you used, weight of fully soaked quilt etc. I have no problems washing a 96" x 108" quilt done with a single layer of Hobbs 80/20 in my standard top loading washer. I have to take a similar sized T-shirt quilt done with high loft batting to the laundromat.

I use ALL of my quilts on the beds and wash them as frequently as necessary. I make a King size quilt for a Queen size bed. I usually measure the bed down beyond the edge of the bed where you want the quilt to hang and see how much more in inches you will need to make the quilt match that measurement. you may need to add a block to each row of a king size quilt or just add an extra border or two. it just depends on how you want to add the inches to your quilt.

I use ones made by my grandmother as bedspreads. They cover the top and sides of the top mattress. I use a bed-skirt to hide the boxspring, bedframe and space under the bed.

I make quilts without batting...sometimes referred to as a counterpane quilt or a summer quilt... that I put on top of my real bedspread when I go to bed at night. That way the dogs can sleep on the bed without ruining my bedspread. In the morning, I just fold it up and put it on the foot of the bed. The part of having dogs sleep on a quilt isn't so much that they add dirt (which mine do because they are outside a lot), but dogs have a tendency to scratch and "dig" the surface of whatever they lay down on, and they can rip the quilting stitches out by doing this. So I machine quilt their quilt so that if they rip out stitches, I can quickly repair it. Also, without the batting, it is pretty easy to just throw it in the wash.

I sometimes assign my dogs their sleep place on the bed so that I only have to cover that spot. This techinque comes in handy because adding a counterpane quilt on top of my bed quilt does add addtional warmth. Before I started quilting, I got a large piece of 100% cotton decorator fabric (purchased at Joann's) that I would put on top the bed at night. That was easy to wash too.

I have also seen many people use a neutral whole cloth (purchased or hand made) as the bedspread, then use any size quilt they like over the top. You can turn a small square throw on point, or fold a larger quilt and place it at the foot for a runner. This way you can add a splash of color without having to make a quilt to fit the whole bed.
FF covered the size quilt a frame can accommodate, but you can always have the main 'body' of the quilt and the drops quilted separately then join them using a QAYG technique after.

Most bed quilts are to be used with a dust ruffle. I made a girlfriend a queen size Irish chain from her favorite fabric and she complained it wasn't large enough. Ended up adding blocks to the quilt top and it ended up being a king size quilt. Last large quilt I pieced. I let her pay for the quilting services from a LAQ.

I do this sort of. I have an off white bedspread that goes to the floor, and I can put quilts of any size on the top of my bed and they look good. Even my quilts with white backgrounds don't look bad on top of my bedspread. For awhile I was even just putting quilts on top of quilts....as long as the bottom quilt didn't show. I thought it was a good way just to store some. But I got tired of that.

Dina

Where I live it's difficult to find a decent bed spread so I make quilts to fit my queen bed. I have a bed skirt and measure where I want the drop and add a little to allow for shrinkage when quilting. So far I've had no problem washing in my front load washer. My little dog sleeps with me and while she is kept clean, I still cover the quilt in the evening with a sheet. Or, you could just roll your pretty quilt down on the bed and only use it in during the day for show. While I have a long way to go to be a really good quilter, and stick to easier patterns, I do like to enjoy what I've done so far.

I make quilts for my beds as well as for wall hangings. I generally only use Warm and Natural cotton batting which is pretty thin. I can fit a King Size in my washing machine which is one of those enormous front-loaders. If you've got a regular top-loader a King Size might fit depending on the size of the machine, but if you're short like me (5'2") you'll have a hard time getting it out of the machine. That's why when my last machine broke I went with a front-loader. None of my quilts are bedspread size, I make them so they come down over the sides of the mattress, but they don't cover the box spring, but you can do whatever size you prefer, there are no hard and fast rules.

Rob