A King Quilt in a weekend... Can it be done?

Hi friends and readers,

My trip to Texas earlier this year brought exciting things….my first-ever Chick-fil-A! Okay, yes, we’ve had these in Michigan for several years, but I was saving this moment to have this American experience in Texas with my aunt. My Auntie Junie swept me up from the airport to fuel up before we hit the fabric stores!

In order to hit as many fabric stores as possible we got to shopping right away, checking out three stores before we even got home! Insanely inspiring. Can you imagine me gasping at every corner of this place!? Texas has so many great stores - I’m jealous!

Hello, future color palette.

We were feeling especially ambitious (or rambunctious depending on who you ask) to make a King sized quilt in a single weekend. This fabric ( Nantucket Summer by Camille Roskelley for Moda) is one of my Aunt’s favorites and she bought it last time she was in Michigan. We dubbed my time in Texas “quiltapalooza.” And boy did we sew…. and cut (and cut and cut and cut.)

We worked with several layer cakes, starting by cutting 5-inch squares. We created “no waste” triangles with white. The final size is trimmed at 4.5 inches.

Well over a 1000 squares later, needless to say, we need to take some breaks. My Aunt knows I’ve been wanting to try a long arm but I was intimidated to try it on my own. What a blast. I stuck to my usual “meandering shapes” and I was shocked at how easily this machine guilds along!

On a long arm like this, the speed of the needle is regulated which means the needle speeds up and slow down depending on how fast you are moving. This makes it way easier than free motioning on my domestic machine where you have to control your speed to keep your stitch length consistent. This quilt top I’m working on in the image below was pieced by my Aunt and color selected by my Mom. (Somehow I always get roped into their projects….. hmmm!?!?)

As much as I fight perfectionist tendencies, it was inevitable I’d have to rip out some mistakes. I made myself comfortable at least! All in all, if you are wanting to give a long arm a try - don’t hesitate!

Truly, I still love free motioning on my domestic machine but I sure could see myself renting time on my local long arm in the future!

Anyways, back to the quiltapalooza. Thanks to my aunt’s friend Margret (Hi, THANK YOU) we had two machines to sew on. There’s no way we could have gotten it done without two machines. Wow, these Bernina Machines sure do know how to throw a stitch. Definitely live up to the hype.

We WORKED. PJs and ice packs… arthritis be damned!

Inspiration kept coming to us.

A King quilt in a weekend…. it can be done. If you see any mistake please don’t tell us. My aunt is on her own to quilt this (luckily she has a fancy new machine to help her out!!) I hope to update with some better pics someday in the future!