Any one ever make a quilt to fit a queen or kings sized bed before?
If you have, how large were each of your blocks, and if you had any boreders how wide were those? I want to make a Churndash quilt with 6 blocks across and 7 down with a border inbetween every block across and every other block down with a large fabric picture in the middle. Any advice?
It sounds like you have a specific plan, so that’s good. Churn Dash is a nine patch based block, so it would be easiest to make the block in a size that is divisible by three, for example 9″ or 12″. Cutting your pieces will be easier because they will be 3 1/2″ or 4 1/2″ for the squares, instead of something like 3 1/8″ for an 8″ block or 3 7/8″ for a 10″ block.
When you make the half square triangles for the corners, you can cut squares from the two fabrics a little bigger than you need, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner on ONE of the squares and then draw another diagonal line on either size of that line 1/4″ away. Put the two squares right sides of the fabric together and sew along the two outside lines. Cut along the middle line and when you open the two pieces, you’ll have two half square triangles a little bigger than you need. Trim them to the right size. It takes a little more work because you’re cutting twice, but in the long run it’s easier because your blocks will be much more accurate.
For a king size quilt, you need to figure how far down the side of the bed you want it to hang. A standard king size mattress is 76″ x 80″, so you need to start with that measurement. A comforter drops to the bottom edge of the mattress, a coverlet drops to the edge of the bed frame, and a bedspread drops to the floor. I’d go for the comforter, myself, in which case you’d need to add at least 16″ to the length and width, more if you have a thicker mattress.
You can make the sashing (between the blocks) wider to help increase the size of the quilt without extra piecing. You can also add multiple borders on the outside to make it bigger. I read that a good way to determine sashing and border width is to use something that is a divisor of the block – so if you make a 12″ block, the sashing and borders could be 1″, 2″, 3″, 4″ or 6″.
For a king size quilt with an 8″ drop, a 9″ block would need about a 3″ sashing and a total of 12″ in borders (multiple borders would look better than one big border, so a 3″ and a 9″ would work, for example). This will be a bit longer than you need, but that’s better than too short. A 12″ block could also use a 3″ sashing and would need only a 3″ border.
One thing I noticed about your description is your use of sashing between the blocks across, but only every other row down. If you’re doing a 6×7 block quilt, this will look odd because you will have two rows, sashing, two rows, sashing and only one row. You’d be better off to either sash it between all of the rows, or do two rows, sashing, THREE rows, sashing, two rows.
This is an ambitious quilt, and I commend you for giving it a try. If you get part way through it and it overwhelms you, you can always make it with fewer blocks by putting the blocks on point, or using setting squares (blank squares alternating between the blocks). This takes up more space without as much effort.
All of my suggestions are based on rotary cutting, and assuming that you have a little experience with quilting. If you need more basic instructions, I highly recommend Alex Anderson’s “Start Quilting” book. It doesn’t have the Churn Dash block, but it is very good at teaching the basics.
There are some very good websites out there, and I’ve put links to a couple of them here.
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