Quilt as you go

I've just been playing happily (and not too expensively) with Amazon. I fancied a book on QAYG. I 'think' I get the technique, but would like a book with some good pictures and some inspiration. You-Tube was fascinating as usual, but I got side-tracked again by Missouri Quilt Shop (NAYY).

Has anybody any suggestions for a good book or two? Do any of you QAYG? Does it work well? I thought it might be a good way to port stuff around rather than struggling with a large quilt all the time. But I don't want a tacky-type finished product. I want it to look as if I'd done it the old-fashioned-way. Hope that makes sense and doesn't offend anyone. I don't want to do that.

Any advice gratefully received. Nel (Gadget Queen)

Reply to
Sartorresartus
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I 'quilt as you go' by machine. When I join the quilted sections I add a = finished size 'flap' of 3/4 to 1 in. which is folded over the raw seam on t= he back and hand stitched in place. No one, including me, has ever been o= ffended by this flap but it would not give the look you are wanting. =20

Other methods involve sewing the quilted sections of the quilt top together= each layer separately- first joining the top layers right sides together, = butting and stitching the batting pieces together and then stitching the ba= ckings together by turning one side under 1/4 in. (You must allow for join= ing the quilted sections by not quilting too close to the seam allowances a= nd often have to go back and add a few stitches- plus the quilting patterns= must be contained within the sections or they might not line up well.) I= find that much too time consuming and fussy- but many do it with great suc= cess and the appearance is (possibly???) neater than my flap method. You = will always have the appearance of the backing being pieced with any techin= ique- and the dimensions of the sections and the pattern they form is alway= s a consideration. =20

An example- If you made each section a 12 in. block with 3 in. saching an= d made the sections in a width wide row. The first section would be a sac= hing, a block and a saching. The next sections in the row would be only a= block and a saching. The sections when viewed from the back would not al= l be equal. This might not appeal to you, either.

It's a solution but not always ideal depending on how 'fussy' you might be = about the appearance of the back.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Reply to
Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Lynne Edwards "The Sampler Quilt Book" or her second book "The New Sampler Quilt Book" are both for QAYG and have good clear instructions. Her class did all the blocks and there are pictures of all the completed quilts - its interesting to see how the blocks/quilts look in so many colourways and with different sashings and borders.

I see Amazon have her "The Essential Sampler Quilts" Book which is a combination of the two books but with colour instructions and new photos of the blocks and quilts using more up-to-date fabrics (my books were my sisters, and she died in 2001). This combination book looks good value. You can 'look inside' too.

My LQS apparently use her books/method for their classes, but when I did my sampler quilt there about 9 years ago we backed each block (which each inporporated its own sashing) with a very fine calico (uk calico!). The quilting was done and the blocks joined, borders attached and then the backing was added in one big piece and tied in place. Most of us used a sheet for the backing.

I th> I fancied a book on QAYG. I 'think' I get the technique, but would

Reply to
Sally Swindells

And now from Old Cranky Pants Polly. I have a QAYG hanging here in my quilting room. I use it to cover shelves of my 'good stuff' and as a reminder for to never again. Truth be told, I'm certain others can do it better but it just doesn't have the same ... what am I looking for here? maybe 'drape'? Quoth the raven, "never more". YMMV Polly

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Reply to
Polly Esther

IF I understand this correctly, this sounds very much like what I do. It is good enough for me; I'm not looking for museum quality quilts or to win any prizes. And the flap, if done carefully and handstitched into place is really barely noticeable. I just finished a huge sampler quilt using this method and I'm sure the recipient won't mind the flaps on the back!

Claudia

Reply to
claudia

Sorry; I hit the enter button prematurely!

I use the same flap technique as LEslie does, and I'm very happy with it, but what if the quilt is not clear blocks? I have a double wedding ring quilt, king size, in the make and although I am still far from the quilting stage, I am thinking about it. I would rather machine quilt it than hand quilt, but do not cherish wrestling it under the machine. Still haven't figured out how to QAYG that one.

Books: I have 2 books by Betty Cotton that explain the flap method quite well.

Claudia

Reply to
claudia

It sounds very much as I expected. Thank you for your replies. I might be able to get one of Ms Bonesteel's books, but I'm not sure it will convince me that the method will give me the end product I wanted. I'm going to have a play today with some squares and see if the method I learned on You-Tube yesterday will give better results. But I couldn't see how it would stuff the sashing to the same extent as the blocks. I don't want thin bits, if I can help it.

See where I get to. I could see it being a really useful tool to have in the armoury, but I don't think it is the ultimate solution I was hoping it might be.

But what ever is?

Thanks. Nel (Gadget Queen)

Reply to
Sartorresartus

OK. I've had a bit of a play with this today. It's been quite interesting.

I used this method:

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Instead of the strip piecing, I used squares. I cut the batting 2" smaller (so back and front = 6"; batt = 4")

Sandwiched everything together and quilted it (good way to practice MQ, at which I am perfectly useless)

Squared everything up and sewed the seams. Pressed them open and turned them in. Then I used a blind hem stitch to sew the blocks together; trimmed the seam allowance between the blocks and then put the rows together in the same way. Then I quilted the 'sashings' and turned the sides in as bindings. mitring the corners as I got to them.

Results: It works rather nicely. As the batt is snugged up against the seam, there is little or no loss of pudge at that point. It doesn't crease or fold along it. It certainly doesn't after quilting the sash. Of course the backing is the same as the sashing on the front, so this has to be taken into consideration in the design.

What I would do differently: = On a proper project I would take a lot more time squaring and drawing out seam lines and making sure everything lined up. = I would certainly trim off the edges and do a proper binding. Yukky- dah! = I would hand-sew the sashing to the front unless I wanted a stitch in the ditch effect. This would also eliminate the tell-tale double line of stitching on the back. There would still be plenty of seamlines, but with a little careful quilting they should melt into the surrounds like they do on the-old-way. = I would make sure I drew lines on the fronts so that the quilting didn't get into the seam area.

It does waste a fair amount of fabric, but I think a little more practice could cut that down considerably. I don't think it would be necessary to make the top 2" bigger than trimmed size, as it doesn't usually lose that much in the quilting. I might cut the batt a little larger to make the squaring a little easier.

Conclusion: I could certainly see myself using this technique on a hand-quilted project. It could have some advantages in other ways. If a block goes awry when machine quilting, it could be replaced without ruining the whole quilt or having to frogstitch comprehensively. Yes, this method has promise.

Nel (Gadget Queen)

Reply to
Sartorresartus

You can get rid of a lot of bulk by quilting the TOP as you go (and the batting), but onto a whole backing piece. Do as Leslie says, starting with the center, which could be 2-3 "rings" wide. then add ring strips as you go. You might find that you can do it easily in 3 sections. The most fiddly part of this for a DWR would be butting the batting together. So don't try to make the batting follow the seams

-just use straight strips, a little wider than the t>Sorry; I hit the enter button prematurely!

Reply to
Roberta

Ck out Sharon Pederson's method for reversible quilts that are QAYG. Her books are "Reversible Quilts-Two at a Time", and "More Reversible Quilts", both published by Martingale & Company (That Patchwork Place). I took a class from her on this method and it was quick and really fun. You get a completely reversible quilt that is quilt as you go. You could use her method for putting blocks together even if you didn't make it reversible - it's the sashing strips that connect the blocks and make it reversible. At least that's the way I remember but I've slept since then. Have fun. Donna in Bellevue, WA USofA

Reply to
ddean

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