Quiltingboard Forums - my huge upholstery fabric quilt

Thank you all for your kind words! I like it, but I am VERY glad it is finished...

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Originally Posted by BrendaK (Post 5882245)

WOW. Is that velvet? Looks to me like you did a great job. I am also glad for you that your client was local. BrendaK

The purple background fabric is a very short pile velvet with that weird rubbery backing that upholstery fabric sometimes has. No idea what the fiber is (if I did the flame test I'd probably have to evacuate the neighborhood...so many synthetics!). I actually placed the blocks so that the grain would contrast between the circle blocks and the square blocks...but the pile was so low that by the time everything was finished you can't really see any directionality to it. Oh well.

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Originally Posted by nativetexan (Post 5882342)

OH my goodness, it's lovely!!!! i made one with upholstery fabrics long ago. wish i'd thought of doing it like this. great quilt!!

The fabrics my client gave me are awesome - she has a good eye for colors, and all but one of the 9 fabrics she gave me played well together.

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Originally Posted by thimblebug6000 (Post 5882372)

It is gorgeous! Hope she likes a weighted feel.... 15 lbs, whew!

I know!! Her legs will go to sleep before she does at night!

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Originally Posted by GailG (Post 5882383)

You did an awesome job!! Is your DSM OK? I did a heavy quilt on mine and knocked the timing out of whack.

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Originally Posted by fxsts93kf (Post 5882519)

Fantastic design! Your quilt is beautiful! I would love to know what workhorse of a DSM you have that stood up to all that! My older machines would have been OK but my newer Pfaff would have died on the spot!

My machine is a Kenmore 385 from the early '80s - mechanical, and a real workhorse. She hasn't balked at anything I've tried yet, and I honestly can't imagine doing anything heavier than this beast!

One of the hardest parts of doing this quilt was getting accurate seams - the fabrics were all different thicknesses so I was never sure how much I would lose in a seam allowance. This didn't matter much for the blocks, because I made them over-large and trimmed them to the size I wanted, but when I sewed the blocks together the pieced part ended up 2" smaller in each direction than I had planned...because even though the seams were sewn at 1/4 inch they ended up using 1/2 inch with fabric thickness (does that make sense?) Live and learn...

Alison