Turning a Comforter into a Quilt

Have you ever wondered what a quilt is technically?  I have.  According to Wikipedia, "A quilt is a type of blanket, traditionally composed of three layers of fiber: a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding, and a woven back, combined using the technique of quilting."  I once saw a definition at a quilt show which went on to say that quilts are stitched together, not tied.  Something tied is more of a comforter.  So I have always considered tied items blankets or comforters. 

When I was pregnant with Monkey I didn't have much energy for quilting, so I tied a simple minky comforter for the twin bed in his nursery. 

I trimmed all three layers with right sides together, stitched around it and turned it right side out.  Then I put it on large quilting frames and tied it.  I stitched around the edge and in the ditch around the border.  I did this because I did not want to bind it as it was made entirely of minky with a polyester batting. 

Now that Monkey has been sleeping in the big boy bed for awhile, I was getting tired of all the ties.  For some reason the ties on the argyle minky kept coming undone and driving me nuts.  Even in the picture below you can see some ties are missing.  The ties on the brown minky stayed nice and tight. 

So I decided to take all the ties out and quilt it.  I used my Janome 6500 with the walking foot to quilt it on some of the white printed lines. 

I just clipped the ties as I came to them.  I figured it would be like taking out pins in a pin basted quilt. 

It actually worked very well, and I am so pleased with the results of three hours' work. 

I now consider this a quilt!  What do you think?  It has three layers with batting in the middle and is stitched together by machine. 

The borders do ripple a little because of how I originally put it together three years ago.  But the back isn't too bad either. 

I know it could have been a lot worse!

The important thing is that Monkey loves his quilt and the ties are no longer driving me batty. 

Quilt Stats #114
Name:  Minky Argyle Quilt
Fabric: 60 inch wide minky
Amount used: 6 yards
Batting:  Low loft polyester
Size:  About 70 x 90 inches
Date finished:  September 2014
What I learned:

• Some things are better quilted.
• I can quilt something which was once tied.
• If I were to do something like this again I wouldn't quilt that outside border until the inner panel was quilted. Then I would bind it more traditionally. 

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Finish it up Friday.