Come Visit Us! Our guest bed has a new quilt!

I bought this "quilt top" years ago, when I was saving up for my longarm quilting machine. I thought it would make a nice practice piece, but I love it so much that I'm using it for realsies!

This was a "cheater" quilt - a piece of fabric printed to LOOK like a pieced quilt top, also called a "panel". I got it from this website, and they had lots of traditional-looking quilt patterns and colors to choose from.

Since this cheater quilt fabric is 90" wide, I purchased 3 yds and made a queen-sized quilt top with NO PIECING REQUIRED! I even had leftovers that I used to make pillow shams. The fabric is $6 per yd, so that means I had a completed queen sized quilt top and two pillow shams for $18!

With cheap fabric, you always wonder what kind of quality you're getting. I pre-washed the cheater fabric, and the end result still seemed very nice - supple, no pilling, thick and weighty... lovely. What's more, the company (in Ringgold, Georgia) states on their website, that they never cut through a "block" when they are cutting yardage. That means that they often include MORE than your ordered, which was the case for me. I had almost 30x90" extra!

Here are some interesting numbers:
Beginning measurement of fabric - 126 x 90" (including selvages)
After washing and drying - 124 x 89.5"
After dense custom quilting - 120 x 88"

All quilting is free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.

Come visit beautiful Alberta and sleep under this newest quilt in our home. We miss all our family and friends from far and wide. Come see us!

I need advice about the pillow shams. I hated to let that extra fabric (and quilting) go to waste, but when I put the shams on the bed with the quilt, I'm afraid it looks too matchy-matchy. Like your grandma's house in the 1980s. Do you like the shammed pillow better on top or the solid butter-colored ones?

Next question: Even after the pillow shams, I still have a piece that is about 30x33" leftover. What should I do with it??