Hey everyone! Today we're making a whole-cloth quilt, and you're going to learn why one beautiful fabric, plus simple quilting, is sometimes all a quilt needs.
Here we go. The fabric we're spotlighting is the Black Green Wishwell Shadow Cotton Wideback Fabric per yard, from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. Just like the name says, this is a cotton wideback, and it measures 108 inches wide. That width is the whole story here, folks. No piecing a backing together. No seam running down the middle. One nice, wide piece of fabric, ready to work.
The design is a black and green shadow pattern, with real depth, like light moving across the surface. The tags call out medium teal and teal tones, too, so that green has a cool, rich feel against the black. It was designed by Vanessa Lillrose & Linda Fitch, and because the print does so much work on its own, it suits a project where fabric stays in big, uncut pieces.
Why a Whole-Cloth Quilt Suits This Fabric
A whole-cloth quilt is exactly what it sounds like. The top is one piece of fabric, not blocks, not strips, not piecing. Your quilting stitches become the design on top of the design. With a shadow print like this one, cutting it into little pieces would lose that soft, shifting look. Keeping it whole lets the pattern breathe, and your meander or echo quilting adds texture across the whole surface. Super duper simple idea, really really pretty result.
At 108 inches wide, one cut covers most throw and lap sizes with room to spare. Use it for your backing too, or let the top be the star. Completely up to you.
Materials
- Black Green Wishwell Shadow Cotton Wideback Fabric — 2 yards for a lap quilt about 60 x 72 inches (the 108-inch width gives you plenty of side room; trim after quilting)
- Batting — one piece about 64 x 76 inches, so you have roughly 2 inches extra all around
- Backing fabric — about 64 x 76 inches (this wideback works here, too)
- Thread — a good quilting thread in black, deep green, or teal to blend with the print
- Binding — about 2.5 yards worth of strips, cut 2.5 inches wide, roughly 7 strips for this size
- Size 90/14 quilting needle, safety pins or spray baste, a ruler, and a rotary cutter
Brief Steps
1. Press and lay out. Press the fabric well. Layer backing (wrong side up), batting, then your whole-cloth top, right side up. Smooth from the center out. Take your time here — wrinkles basted in are wrinkles quilted in.
2. Baste. Pin every 4 to 6 inches, or spray baste if that's your way. Both work. I tend to pin a big one like this so I can reposition as I go.
3. Plan your quilting. A gentle meander is a great first choice, about 1 to 2 inches across each loop. Echo quilting around the shadow shapes looks wonderful, too. Or chalk light lines and stitch straight rows.
4. Quilt it. Start in the center and work out. Set a comfortable stitch length, around 8 to 10 stitches per inch for machine quilting, and slow down on the curves. Travel along edges when you need to move without breaking thread. If a loop goes wonky, leave it. Just like that, it becomes part of the texture.
5. Trim and bind. Square the quilt, trim to your finished 60 x 72 inches, then attach your 2.5-inch binding strips, miter the corners, and tie off your ends neatly.
Practical Tips
Warn yourself at the moment of risk: a whole-cloth quilt shows every pucker, so if layers shift, stop, smooth, and re-pin. Five minutes of re-basting saves an hour with a seam ripper. Ask me how I know, y'all — I have quilted a permanent wrinkle into a backing, and I showed everybody so they'd learn from my mistake.
On thread color, hold three spools against the fabric and squint. The one that disappears gives you texture only. The one that stands out lets stitching draw its own pattern. We're not reinventing the wheel here — it's your quilt.
And here's your permission beat, folks. A whole-cloth quilt does not have to be perfectly quilted to be a good quilt. You are your own worst critic, and nobody else is measuring your meander loops. It's not a race. Make the lap size first, enjoy how fast that 108-inch width gets you to the quilting, and let this rich black and green fabric do the heavy lifting.
If I can do this, y'all can do it. Thanks so much for sewing along with me today. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Shop the Black Green Wishwell Shadow Cotton Wideback Fabric per yard at Linda's Electric Quilters.
