Thread: Quilt As You Go

I am a piecer - not a quilter. Generally I piece comfort quilts that our Guild donates to a local hospital for cancer patients to have. In the past, those have been tied. This year I decided to learn "quilt as you go" and see if I liked the look of it. Not only did I love sewing it, I loved the look of it. While I was at it, I learned the flange binding technique and am pleased with that as well. In learning the QAYG, I used lots of the two-prong seam pins, spent lots of time ironing, and used a regular pressure foot - not my walking foot. I have quilted some small things in the past but was never satisfied with the less than professional look. And I could never learn to control my stitch length with the walking foot. My machine sewed all layers without a blink. I doubt I will ever tie another quilt.

I made the blocks and sewed them into separate rows. I began in the middle of the quilt and did flip 'n sew, matching seams as I went. After each row was sewn and flipped, I pressed from the front and the back so I wouldn't have bunching anywhere. I basted all four edges before I sewed on the binding. Honestly it didn't take me much longer to do this technique than it would have to sew my rows together. I learned this because my daughter needs to make a baby quilt and she is not much of a sewer and didn't want to spend the money to have it professionally quilted. I didn't want to force my awful quilting on a sweet baby.

It is wonderful to master new skills. Your quilt is so beautiful. Wonderful work.