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How to Make Wholecloth Quilts – Tutorial

March 22, 2013 25 Comments

 This wholecloth quilts tutorial is part of the series

1 Design – 5 Quilting Techniques.

Wholecloth quilts tutorialThe top of a wholecloth quilt is a single piece of fabric – no piecing or appliques.
The design must be transferred  to the  top then the marked fabric is layered with batting and backing and the sandwich is quilted.

A wholecloth quilt is about color and texture – one color and a lot of texture; it’s simple and elegant.

wholecloth quilts tutorial

Prepare the fabric

If you have a design that you think it could be distorted by the shrinkage of fabric after washing, then you have to pre-wash all the fabrics used, including the batting; or use a batting that doesn’t shrink (like polyester).

After washing, starch the fabric. A stiff fabric is easier to mark and the quilting will be easier as well.
For the design below, prewashing is not absolutely necessary.  

Material List

-top fabric, batting, backing :16”x 16”
– If you want to give more definition to the quilt design, you could use a thick batting or even 2 layers of batting. For small quilts, 2 layers of batting should not cause trouble.

Download the design

To assemble the pattern, cut on the dashed line of the first page and tape it to the second page.

-click on the picture to download the design-

Transfer the design onto fabric; as I don’t have a lightbox, I taped the paper pattern onto a window then I taped the fabric over it.

wholecloth quilts tutorial

Using a washable marker (I used one from this box), transfer the design onto fabric.

wholecloth quilt tutorial

Quilting

Then layer the top fabric with batting and backing and quilt as desired.

The small quilts are quick and easy projects.

wholecloth quilt tutorial
Here are a few of my wholecloth quilts.

This one below was a quick project because I quilted following the design on the fabric.

wholecloth quilt tutorial
And these ones below are too much fun!
wholecloth quilts tutorial
Click on the picture to see details about this quilt.

wholecloth quilts tutorialClick on the picture to see details of this quilt.

You could call this “Addiction”!

wholecloth quilts tutorial
Click on the picture to see details about these quilts.
wholecloth quilts tutorial
Click on the picture to see details of this quilt.
See the other tutorials of the series here.
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Filed Under: tutorials Tagged With: wholecloth quilts

Comments

  1. Terry says

    March 22, 2013 at 12:52 pm

    very pretty and a great way to practice machine quilting

    Reply
  2. Nicole says

    March 22, 2013 at 1:20 pm

    Wow, Geta! I'll have to give this a try. It looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  3. Elizabeth says

    March 22, 2013 at 1:32 pm

    I'm very excited! I love this idea and can't wait for more!

    xo -E

    Reply
  4. Rosa says

    March 22, 2013 at 1:48 pm

    It looks wondeful.Thanks!

    Reply
  5. The Slow Quilter says

    March 22, 2013 at 2:03 pm

    This is wonderful. Thanks for the tut.

    Reply
  6. capitolaquilter says

    March 22, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    this seems plenty complicated for me! Love the idea of a whole cloth quilt and it'll be fun to see all the ideas you have, thanks.

    Reply
  7. Cynthia says

    March 22, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    Thanks for the information on the marking pens. Have not heard of these before. Will give it a go. I like your article on wholecloths. Already started one a few months ago, but wish I had used marking pens instead of the pounce chalk.

    Reply
  8. liniecat says

    March 22, 2013 at 3:14 pm

    fascinating and a great clear tutorial………….thank you : )
    Lyn

    Reply
  9. Heidi aus Wien says

    March 22, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    Wow ! It looks amazing !!! I will try ist soon . I think must try it !!! Thank you very much . Greetings from Austria , Heidi

    Reply
  10. ANudge says

    March 22, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    How very generous of you, Geta, to share this with us. This is just what I needed to get back into free motion quilting.

    Reply
  11. Joan says

    March 22, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    Looks great – I will be back next week. 🙂

    Reply
  12. Anita211 says

    March 22, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    It looks and sounds so easy…

    Reply
  13. kwilta says

    March 22, 2013 at 4:30 pm

    The Circles wholecloth, was the fabric already Marbled in various shades of pink or did you colour it. I notice some of the fabric is white while others parts are pink.
    Beautiful Quilt Geta. Would love to make something like this

    Reply
  14. Britt G. says

    March 22, 2013 at 5:10 pm

    These look amazing. I love the idea of using a floral print fabric and outlining the image and filling in the other areas. There are such beautiful fabrics in the world to whole cloth quilt. I'll have to add it to my to do list.

    Reply
  15. Wendy says

    March 22, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    Your quilts are just beautiful! I especially love the bigger ones, but I think my favorite one is the peachy one and the big flowers. Just gorgeous!

    Reply
  16. Quilting Innovations says

    March 22, 2013 at 5:57 pm

    Thank you for the tutorial. I look forward to seeing others. Your designs are so lovely. Just a tip: I am a hand dyer and sometimes my fabrics are too dark to transfer the design to the front, as I cannot see through the fabric.

    If your design is not too complicated and is large, you can trace the design *IN REVERSE from your paper pattern onto a featherweight fusible like this one with a med Sharpie pen. Fuse this to the reverse side of your quilt top :

    http://www.pellonprojects.com/products/1042-911ff-pellon-fusible-featherweight.aspx

    Using a contrasting thread (like yellow on red fabric), stitch on the reverse side with very large basing stitches. Flip over to the front and stitch the design. Turn over to the front trace slightly beside the basted stitches with a chalk pencil or marking tool. You can also trace the pattern *right side up* onto a water soluble stabilizer and sew it to the top of your quilt sandwich with your stabilizer on the top. Once the outline of the main motif is sewn (here, the flower), you can use a spray bottle to mist the stabilizer and remove it from where you stitched.Finish the free motion quilting as usual. I have used both of these successfully. Good luck.

    Reply
    • geta@romanianquiltstudio.com says

      March 23, 2013 at 11:17 am

      Thank you for all the tips, Quilting Innovations!
      I like the idea of using fusible interfacing. After you fuse it to the back of the fabric, you could stitch the design with water soluble thread. No need to trace the pattern on the front fabric.
      And the water soluble stabilizer is a great idea too.

      These would be great tips for "Quilter's Favorites". I hope you will join us. Do you have a blog ?

      Reply
  17. Asia asiscrapki says

    March 22, 2013 at 7:16 pm

    Niesamowite dzieła… jestem zdumiona.
    Pozdrawiam

    Reply
  18. Edda Soffía says

    March 22, 2013 at 10:14 pm

    This looks like so mutch fun, I have to try it out. Thank you

    Reply
  19. Snowcatcher says

    March 23, 2013 at 5:22 am

    I've never made a wholecloth quilt, but this makes me want to give it a try. Although white wholecloth is elegant and pretty much beyond compare, using color is very appealing.

    Reply
  20. iris says

    March 23, 2013 at 6:55 am

    Great Geta as always i am a big fan of yours , my doughter is a new fan now.

    nice tutorial, thank u

    Reply
  21. Raewyn says

    March 23, 2013 at 9:06 am

    Thank you Geta – I enjoyed this – and especially looking how you made those wholecloth quilts using the pattern on the fabric!

    Reply
  22. Debby says

    March 23, 2013 at 11:07 am

    As always, beautiful work with beautiful fabric and beautiful stitches. This is a super idea that I think I will pass on to my machine quilting students – point them to your blog and stitch up a sample to show them. I think they will be inspired by your work!

    Reply
  23. SIMPLESEW says

    March 23, 2013 at 3:05 pm

    Geta, thanks for the easy following tutorial.

    Reply
  24. ellaruth says

    June 21, 2014 at 11:19 am

    Geta, you have the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen. They are simply amazing. Thank you for sharing. ellaruth

    Reply

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