Summer weight quilt question

On Aug 26, 12:28 pm, "Kate T." wrote:
Hey Michelle

Your question made me go look in my closet at a quilt my mother made
many years ago. She called it her summer quilt.

She didn't use any batting at all. Used a sheet for the backing.

Now mind you she always bought sheets with the 200 thread count. This
is all hand quilted. Her fingers must have hurt badly by the time she
finished this full size quilt or they were fingers of steel.

I know this quilt to be at least 40 years old. It was made before my
DWR and she made that in 1968.

Kate T. South Mississippi

What a lovely family heirloom! And no doubt, your mom's fingers were
sore. I certainly admire those ladies with fingers of steel. My
fingers just don't have it what it takes to quilt like my older family
members--with the quilt stretched tight in a frame. I quilt without a
frame, just flopping the sandwich around in my lap. HA!

Thanks Kate!

Michelle in NV

Anne, I see your point about using a stabilizer for decorative
quilting--but my machine quilting is only about straight lines. ;-)
I certainly admire anyone who can do decorative stitching on the
sewing machine. If a quilt must have decorative quilting, I do it by
hand. However, it takes me forever, so I reserve it for very special
occasions. :-)

well I'm no expert at it, but I just love the different possibilities of
quilt designs, but wouldn't have the time or the patience to hand quilt
them, so I'm practicing hard. I just completed a small mariners compass
wallhanging, it was so frustrating for me, I simply could not think of
any free motion designs that would work with the sizes and shaped of the
vast majority of the quilt and it was too small for an all over design
to work well, so I ended up with a mix of in the ditch and straight line
echoes or extensions of various elements, I'm pleased with the result,
but it would have been a nice size for quilting practice!

Cheers
Anne

With just a sheet on the back, I would wonder if you could feel the seams
from the blocks. I like the idea of a piece of flannel in the middle to
soften the feel of the quilt.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
boca_jan1atyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan



"desert quilter" wrote in message
ups.com...
Just read all of your great replies to my question. I hadn't thought
of either using flannel or just foregoing any batting at all. This is
great! I can make the top, see how heavy it is on its own and go
either way. I'm kind of partial to the idea of a flannel batting so
the quilt will have more body, but don't want to defeat my purpose--a
quilted bedspread to use in the summer! Glad to know I have options.

Anne, I see your point about using a stabilizer for decorative
quilting--but my machine quilting is only about straight lines. ;-)
I certainly admire anyone who can do decorative stitching on the
sewing machine. If a quilt must have decorative quilting, I do it by
hand. However, it takes me forever, so I reserve it for very special
occasions. :-)

Wendy, it sounds like you have much the same issue that I do. :-)

Thanks so much for your help, ladies!

Michelle in NV

As a person experiencing her own personal desert heat most of the year, on
and off, a sheet all by itself is usually enough. Of course, a traditional
summer quilt uses no batting at all, just backing to cover the piecing
seams. Your exquisite hand quilting won't show up well, though.
Roberta in D

"desert quilter" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
ups.com...
Hi All,

I made a quilt that I'd hoped would work for summer--used a light, low-
loft batting. Unfortunately, here in the Mojave desert, the quilt is
still too heavy for summer. (Will work great for winter though.) So
I'm thinking of giving a summer weight quilt another shot. Instead of
using a batting, I'm considering using a sheet instead. Has anyone
tried this? I'd love to hear any other suggestions!

Thanks in advance!
Michelle in NV

On Aug 26, 7:15 pm, Anne Rogers wrote:
Anne, I see your point about using a stabilizer for decorative
quilting--but my machine quilting is only about straight lines. ;-)
I certainly admire anyone who can do decorative stitching on the
sewing machine. If a quilt must have decorative quilting, I do it by
hand. However, it takes me forever, so I reserve it for very special
occasions. :-)

well I'm no expert at it, but I just love the different possibilities of
quilt designs, but wouldn't have the time or the patience to hand quilt
them, so I'm practicing hard. I just completed a small mariners compass
wallhanging, it was so frustrating for me, I simply could not think of
any free motion designs that would work with the sizes and shaped of the
vast majority of the quilt and it was too small for an all over design
to work well, so I ended up with a mix of in the ditch and straight line
echoes or extensions of various elements, I'm pleased with the result,
but it would have been a nice size for quilting practice!

Cheers
Anne

Your Mariner's Compass sounds beautiful! I intend to try to expand my
machine quilting repertoire by quilting individual blocks, then
putting the quilt together afterward. I have blocks from one of
Teri's "your pick" swaps that I will eventually use to try this
technique.

Best regards,
Michelle in NV

On Aug 27, 5:39 am, "Roberta Zollner" wrote:
As a person experiencing her own personal desert heat most of the year, on
and off, a sheet all by itself is usually enough. Of course, a traditional
summer quilt uses no batting at all, just backing to cover the piecing
seams. Your exquisite hand quilting won't show up well, though.
Roberta in D

"desert quilter" schrieb im Newsbeitragnews:1188155205.818141.88990@l22g2000pr c.googlegroups.com...



Hi All,

I made a quilt that I'd hoped would work for summer--used a light, low-
loft batting. Unfortunately, here in the Mojave desert, the quilt is
still too heavy for summer. (Will work great for winter though.) So
I'm thinking of giving a summer weight quilt another shot. Instead of
using a batting, I'm considering using a sheet instead. Has anyone
tried this? I'd love to hear any other suggestions!

Thanks in advance!
Michelle in NV- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

No worries about the hand-quilting. Since this is going to be used as
bedspread and will see lots of use, I plan on using machine quilting
only.

Best regards,
Michelle in NV

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:06:45 -0700, desert quilter
wrote:

Hi All,

I made a quilt that I'd hoped would work for summer--used a light, low-
loft batting. Unfortunately, here in the Mojave desert, the quilt is
still too heavy for summer. (Will work great for winter though.) So
I'm thinking of giving a summer weight quilt another shot. Instead of
using a batting, I'm considering using a sheet instead. Has anyone
tried this? I'd love to hear any other suggestions!

Thanks in advance!
Michelle in NV

You could simply eliminate the batting and quilt the top and back
together. FWIW, I find that thin Warm and Natural to be cooler than
low loft poly batting.
Debra in VA
See my quilts at
http://community.webshots.com/user/debplayshere

Michelle:
Here's my suggestion. Use cotton top and a flannel
backing .... NO 'batting' layer. I think the flannel
back would have a bit more 'oomph!' than a plain cotton
backing. In fact, the more I think about this, the more
I realize I should make one for here ... it is hot and
muggy in Virginia during our looonnngg summers! Please
let us know how this all works out.
PAT

desert quilter wrote:
Just read all of your great replies to my question. I hadn't thought
of either using flannel or just foregoing any batting at all. This is
great! I can make the top, see how heavy it is on its own and go
either way. I'm kind of partial to the idea of a flannel batting so
the quilt will have more body, but don't want to defeat my purpose--a
quilted bedspread to use in the summer! Glad to know I have options.
..........cut.......
Thanks so much for your help, ladies!

Michelle in NV

Hi all,
I have dittos for two of these ideas. 1) I have a lap quilt that's
polyester crazy-patches alternated with white cotton squares, then a
thinnish white-with-small-flowers cotton print on the back. String-
tied, no batting, the flowers show thru from the front. Wierd, huh?
(Mom bought this years ago from an old lady who was supporting herself
with these funny little quilts) Strange thing is, its a summer
favorite around here. I've tried to get rid of it a couple times and
my daughters object strenuously. 2) I like to make receiving blankets
like this....whole cloth cotton on the front, whole-cloth flannel on
the back, simple stitching to keep it from shifting. I wonder if this
would work bigger?

Gigi

Your Mariner's Compass sounds beautiful! I intend to try to expand my
machine quilting repertoire by quilting individual blocks, then
putting the quilt together afterward. I have blocks from one of
Teri's "your pick" swaps that I will eventually use to try this
technique.

I will finish sewing the binding at quilt group tonight, so I'll
hopefully post a pic somewhere tomorrow.

I've also wondered about doing a quilt with chunks about 24 inches
square quilted then joined, but recently I quilted a 52" square quilt
with no problems I'm feeling a bit more confident and thinking of
jumping to a queen size, this is partly because I want to a large
mariners compass, about 48", plus a pieced border and though I can see a
way of splitting it up to quilt as you go, it doesn't seem like a good
idea. I also just acquired some gorgeous fabric with a large grape
design and I'm working through design ideas for that, there are large
quantities of it, so I'm thinking queen size again, so that could be
split up into sections. On the other hand I've got another 52 ish inch
square quilt basted and ready to quilt, I've been practicing some of the
designs for that on FQ size pieces and if it goes well, it will give my
confidence a big boost.

The nicest thing someone can say to you as a quilter is "did you quilt
that yourself", so many people either use a professional long arm
quilter, or restrict to fairly simple things, if someone says that to
you, it gives you a real boost.

Cheers
Anne