I started this quilt back in January 2024 during a beginner's quilt class taught by Chloe at Modern Domestic. The Blakely Quilt by Then Came June is an excellent first quilt because all of the cutting and sewing is so straightforward. It's a great way to get a sense of whether you enjoy the process of making a quilt before delving into more complicated piecing methods.
As someone new to quilting, one thing I did not realize is that making a quilt top is NOT the same as making a finished quilt. When I got to the end of the pattern—and the end of the class!—the instructions were essentially: finish your quilt as desired. BUT HOW DO I DO THAT??? I totally understand that rehashing information that can be found elsewhere is not the best use of a pattern maker's time (and indeed, there are tons of quilting tutorials in books and online), but I think it's useful for a newbie to mentally prepare for this. If you've never quilted before, you will need additional resources to actually create a functional quilt. I found the tutorials in Wendy Chow's book Urban Quilting to provide a useful overview of the entire quilting process.
My quilt top languished for months because it was too big to comfortably quilt on my home machine, and to be honest, the thought of basting and pinning the quilt sandwich together exhausted me. Luckily for me, Modern Domestic also offers longarm quilting classes and machine rentals, so I was finally able to finish up my quilt six months later. FUN FACT: IF YOU USE A LONGARM ON A FRAME YOU DON'T HAVE TO BASTE. IT'S AMAZING.
Ultimately I love how the quilt turned out. Will I make another one? Maybe, but I'll need to wait awhile because quilting is expensive.
Pattern & Size
- Blakely Quilt by Then Came June
- I made the Medium Throw (69” x 69” finished size; 5 x 5 block layout)
Fabric & Supplies
Quilt Top
I used Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids (134 gsm / 4.0 oz) for my quilt top piecing and I LOVED working with it. I don't think I can go back to Kona Cotton. The Pure Solids are so soft, easy to sew with, and didn't fray during all of the handling that occurs when making a quilt (no starch needed). I did not pre-wash my fabric. When I washed the quilt for the first time with two color catchers, there were zero dye bleeds. Highly recommend!!
Colors Used:
- Color 1: Coffee Bean
- Color 2: Vintage Walnut
- Color 3: Chocolate
- Color 4: Sienna Brick
- Color 5 (and binding): Toasty Walnut
- Color 6: Vanilla Custard
- Color 7: Honey
- Background and sashing: Coconut Milk
Quilt Back
I used Fableism's Forest Forage Daisies in Biscuit (155 gsm / 4.6 oz) for the quilt back. I decided to pre-wash this fabric just in case it had a different shrinkage rate than the Pure Solids.
Supplies
- Quilter’s Dream Cotton Deluxe Batting
- Mettler Seracor thread in Caramel Cream (#0285) — a great neutral that matched my backing fabric and looked lovely with all of the colors on my quilt top
Quilting
I quilted this myself after taking Modern Domestic's longarm classes (free motion and edge-to-edge designs) on their Bernina Q24 ☺️☺️☺️
I used the Q-matic Panto_Swirls design, flipped each row along the horizontal axis, offset the row designs, and decreased the vertical distance between them so that I could quilt three complete rows per safe area. It took about 50 minutes for the machine to quilt the full safe area at its default speed. Altogether I spent about six hours total at the shop, but I was working pretty slowly since it was my first time setting up the machine on my own and I made a number of silly mistakes.
Finishing
I used my home sewing machine with a walking foot to sew the binding on to the front of the quilt, then tried securing the binding to the back by stitching in the ditch from the front. I didn't love how this turned out — I had some visible stitches on the front where I veered away from the seam, and the stitch line wasn't as close to the folded edge of the binding as I would have liked (and I didn't like the look of the stitches on the back). So I ended up spending a day to hand sew the binding onto the back and wish I would have just done that from the start! It looks so much neater and there's no annoying edge to catch on.
I made a label with stamps and a fabric-safe ink pad, heat set it with an iron, and then sewed it on to the backing. Before closing it up, I slipped in patches of each of the fabrics I used. If I ever need to patch the quilt in the future, I'll have the exact match (and it will have been washed the same number of times as the quilt fabric).
Keep in Touch
Thanks very much for reading! If you’d like in-person support and instruction, please sign up for my classes at Modern Domestic or reach out to schedule a private lesson. If you have any questions, feedback, or corrections regarding this post, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
Further Reading
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