For a while now I’ve been thinking of starting the epic journey of making a king sized quilt for my bed. Before I jump into a project of such a huge scale, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to see if I still liked quilting and to play around with ideas on what kind of large quilt I wanted to make. I knew I wanted to use the Tamarack Jacket pattern from Grainline Studios and I had an idea of a palette. I used pretty humble fabrics - basic muslin, chambray (some new yardage, some upcycled from a second hand dress) and some gold quilting cotton. From there, I just let my imagination fly and designed the piecing as I went!

I created each section (two fronts, two sleeves, one back) one at a time and then attempted to mirror or compliment the design with each subsequent piece. Next I hand quilted using a cotton/wool blend batting and cotton backing, before tracing the pattern lines onto the finished block, basting those edge lines and then cutting it out.

I ended up sizing down from a 12 by taking rather large seam allowances on the shoulders and under the arms - my guess is that it’s a probably an 8, but I’m not positive. I always wanted this jacket to have a little extra room for comfort and I like the finished feel!

On the inside I hand finished every seam by either appliquéing a strip of fabric over the pressed open seam, or making something sort of like a flat felled seam so that there are no raw edges.

I cannot wait to wear this quilted jacket all fall and winter long. I’m usually quite cold at home so I set out to make a wearable quilt and I think this does the trick! And the 120+ hours it took to make it hasn’t swayed me from making my own large bed quilt either! I’ll keep you posted on the progress!