Anatomy of a Quilt - This is how we do it!

Have you ever wondered how a quilt is made?  Follow the pictures below with the commentary to see how we build a quilt start to finish!

After decisions on size and colours, we begin by cutting the quilt pieces out. There may be as many as 3,000 pieces!

In some instances we sew strips and then cut to make blocks more even and easier to piece.

Now we begin to assemble the blocks

We are moving forward! The blocks are coming together!

Pressing seams correctly ensures a well pieced quilt lays flat and looks good!

I like to stop piecing once a few blocks are done and link them together to get a better idea of how the quilt will look! Now I get excited!

63 blocks are all sewed together in strips and then added row by row. Borders need to be added now.

Here is the finished "flimsy" - the quilt top finished and ready to have batting and backing added and quilted.

Loading the backing on the long arm. Loading the entire quilt takes about 45 minutes

Basting the batting on the backing - to hold it secure before adding the "flimsy".

Loading the top

It ready for long arm machine quilting!

Empty squares deserve extra patterning!

Borders are fun to design and quilt and add a nice touch to the center pattern

Corners are fun too - glad I paid attention in geometry class!

Ready for the big reveal - quilting is done!

The back shows the quilting on the quilt easier - here is where I look to make sure I have not missed anything!

More detail of the back - it's reversible!

What a beauty!

Corner detail

One step left - binding the edges. But I love to admire it for a while!

Pricing a quilt

The image below is not my price quoting - but does give a great break down on pricing.  I use an easier method by pricing a custom quilt by square inch - before fabric costs.  Start to finish is  $0.09/ square inch  This makes a lap quilt 70 x 56 approximately $350 and a queen sized quilt approx $750.00 before fabric costs.  Fabric and batting can range from $150 for smaller quilts to $400 for extra large quilts.  

---

Look MA - one hand!

Here are a couple videos on long-arming in action.  (one handed - so a bit hard to video professionally!)