So far in your puff quilt process, you’ve mastered Part 1 and Part 2. Now, let’s finish your quilt!
I hope you gave yourself at LEAST a week to sew all those puff pockets, because it takes a lot of time. I finished Onyx Storm while I was sewing, and now I’m making myself listen to A Court of Silver Flames, even though I haaaaaate Nesta, because I have to know everything that happens in the fairy realm.
So far in A Court of Silver Flames, though, there is NOTHING happening in the fairy realm, and I feel like I’m pretty far in!
Anyway, whether you’re entertaining yourself with dragon rider smut or fairy smut, it’s time to finish this quilt!
Materials
To finish sewing this puff quilt, you will need:
- backing fabric. I know there’s a ton of heated debate about the suitability of using sheets as quilt backs, but I unabashedly back almost all my quilts with thrifted cotton sheets. I quilt or hand-tie everything myself, though–if you send your quilts to a long-armer, you need to ask about their personal policy on using sheets.
- fiberfill. The amount you’ll need depends on the size of your quilt, but I ended up using about .1-.2 ounces of polyfill per block in this quilt. Cotton fiberfill is the most eco-friendly, but after a lot of dithering I did end up choosing polyester fill instead. I feel a little gross about it, but I’m very familiar with polyfill so I knew exactly how it would behave in this quilt, and I just wasn’t willing to experiment on something this big. Maybe I’ll make that a project for the autumn!
- sewing supplies. I did all the sewing on a home sewing machine, although the quilt did get soooo heavy and bulky towards the end. You’ll have a bunch of invisible seams making the puff pockets for this quilt, so it’s a great time to use up the weird thread colors you bought for a single project four years ago. Otherwise, go with matching thread for the parts that will be seen.
- floss or yarn for tying. I always hand-tie with embroidery floss, which I know is another controversial decision, but I’m a rebel!
- washable white glue. I learned how to do glue basting early this summer, and it’s my favorite thing ever! I just use my kids’ old washable Elmer’s white glue, and it’s always worked great.
Step 1: Sew the quilt.
For the very first row of your puff quilt, sew all the quilt puffs together, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, with a proper 1/4″ seam that will hide the stitching from the scant 1/4″ seam you sewed previously. Sew the puffs so that the open side of each all face the same way.
After that row is complete, go back and stuff each puff and sew it closed with another scant 1/4″ seam, pleating that final 4.5″ side of each block to match its 4″ buddy as you go. To do this the most easily, I start a couple of stitches on the first row, THEN stuff that puff and the next few down the row. As my stitching gets close to the end of the final stuffed puff, I stuff and few more and keep going.
How much fiberfill you stuff into each puff is a matter of preference–and debate! It is a LOT easier to sew this quilt when the puffs are lightly stuffed, and some sewists say that the quilt will wear better, as well. However, the recipient of this particular quilt vastly preferred the feel of the puffs stuffed very full. This is much more fiddly to sew, but frankly, I prefer the look and heft of the well-stuffed puff, as well. I kind of see the point of the sewists who worry that overstuffed puffs will eventually split the seams, because the stuffing does put pressure on those seams, but remember that every single puff seam is sewn twice, once with a scant 1/4″ seam and once with a proper 1/4″ seam, and THEN it’ll be tied at the corners, as well. Overstuffed or not, a puff quilt ends up being VERY sturdy.
The second on to the final row of your puff quilt will be sewn a little different from the first row:
- Sew the row of quilt puffs together, right sides together, with a proper 1/4″ seam. Sew the puffs so the open side of each all face AWAY from the previous row you’ll be sewing them to.
- Sew the row of empty quilt puffs to the previous row of stuffed puffs, right sides together, using a proper 1/4″ seam. Make sure the open side of the empty puff row faces AWAY from the stuffed puff row. Sewing the empty row to the stuffed puff row can be fiddly, so pin at the corners of each block if you need to in order to keep the blocks lined up.
- Stuff each puff in the empty puff row and sew it closed with a scant 1/4″ seam, pleating that final 4.5″ side of each block to match its 4″ buddy as you go. To do this the most easily, I start a couple of stitches on the first row, THEN stuff that puff and the next few down the row. As my stitching gets close to the end of the final stuffed puff, I stuff and few more and keep going.
- Repeat Steps 1-4 until the quilt top is finished!
Step 2: Back and tie your puff quilt.
Some sewists put a proper batting layer behind a puff quilt top, but that is NOT necessary: the whole point of a puff quilt is that the batting is IN the puffs!
Instead, simply back your puff quilt top with your preferred backing fabric, making sure that it extends at least a couple of inches past the quilt top on all sides so that you can do a back-to-front binding. Pin the quilt as necessary to keep the backing taut and in place.
Tie the quilt where every corner meets using the material of your preference–I’m a rebel, so I used embroidery floss. I stitched between the corners in a Z shape, going in the top right corner, out the top left corner, in the bottom right corner, and out the bottom left corner, then tying the top right and bottom left ends together in a square knot. This evenly distributes the tension across all four adjacent quilt blocks, and when you do that for every corner, your quilt should be well-attached to the backing and amply reinforced.
Step 3: Bind your puff quilt.
Trim the backing to 1″ longer than the puff quilt top on all sides.
To make this back-to-front binding, you’ll fold the binding once onto itself, then again onto the quilt edge, and stitch it in place, making sure you cover the last remnants of that scant 1/4″ stitching.
You’ll definitely have to wash your quilt a couple of times after this, but the best way to achieve this is with glue basting!
Get some washable school glue, put a very thin layer of glue between each fold, and iron for a few seconds to heat set it. Your basting will be as firm and sturdy as if it was, well, glued! There’s no issue sewing through the glue–it’s SUCH a thin layer–and because the glue is washable, it washes right out in the washing machine. I did have to run this puff quilt twice because it’s so heavy and bulky, but I’ve never had to wash any other quilt more than once to get the glue out.
After the binding is glue basted to the quilt, edge stitch around the binding to sew it down. Wash your quilt once or twice to remove the glue, and you’re finished!
This quilt is SUUUUUPER puffy and bulky and heavy, and my entire family is obsessed with it. Snuggling under it is like being held inside a cotton cloud and under a weighted blanket, and although I did not mean to make this one so big–major math error, lol!–I honestly love how oversized it is because now a couple of us can lay on the couch and cuddle under it while watching movies, with 1-2 cats on top.
