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.

Beautiful quilt! ... very colorful eye-catching. I'm intrigued by your method, it seems different than the usual method with sashes.

isn't it great to advance one's skills? Nice quilt. Very modern and bold.

EXTRAORDINARY!!!
Looks like Valentine's Day!!
How did you QAYG this quilt? ? ? ?

very nicely done... glad you mastered a new skill

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.

Love QAYG quilts. Yours is great!

You have expanded your horizons and done a lovely job at it. Thanks for sharing.

I also am a pieces, but a QAYG tute on here scared me away from trying that. You had to sew the sashing on both sides without the seams showing and I couldn't figure how she could do it. So since I couldn't find the answer in her tute, I decided it must be too tricky to explain.

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

It's not tricky at all Jeanne. Just think of flip n sew. Quilt sandwich is layered from the bottom: Backing fabric facing down, batting, one row of your top facing up with a row laid right on top of it facing down (right sides together just as if you were joining the rows and not QAYG. Use lots of pins.... I love the 2 pronged seam pins as they go in the layer much better than straight pins. As you are pinning, smooth and adjust your rows so they won't be rumpled. Stitch all the way across the quilt and then flip the top row over and press. I start in the middle of the quilt so I won't run out of batting/backing. This technique allows me to donate a professional looking quilt while at the same time not taking up much more time than it normally would to sew the rows together and tie. I don't use this method with anything over a 6 inch block. It may help you to look at some you tube videos. I don't have close access to quilting classes (or the money) so I just figure new ideas out as I go. The good thing is that some fabric donations are made to our group so if I screw up trying to learn something new, I have only lost my time. We try to give at least 100 quilts each year, but it's never enough.

Thanks so much for your instructions and new idea. Your quilt is beautiful and looks very professionally done. The binding adds a nice touch too.

So, when you layer this to sew a row at a time, is your batting and backing also "rows at a time" rather than one large piece of batting & 1 large backing piece? Would like to try this sometime as I like to make large quilts, but would love to have less bulk when quilting them.

Very pretty!

This is my favorite quilt as you go tute!
https://www.baysidequilting.com/stor...idCategory=284

Very nice quilt. I am glad you had good success.

This method sounds similar to "column quilts", which were featured on a "Sewing with Nancy" series. I think it would be interesting to try.

My batting and back are one large piece. I then sew the rows onto the large piece. It takes some maneuvering, and you have to make sure you don't get your pieced rows upside down. Prong pins are almost essential for this as they slide easily into the sandwich and you don't have to lift the rows (sandwich package) to pin. After a row is sewn, I iron both the front and the back, and I iron the back one row ahead. That smooths out the back/batting combination and ensures no bunching on the back. Next time I make another one, I will post pictures if you all wish.

This is also what I've started doing! 1st started a couple of years ago & love it.

giggray: Very nice quilt ..Thanks for sharing !

Great colors and pattern

This is wonderful! But I have one question....Isn't more quilting needed vertically? I can see where attaching the horizontal seams takes care of the 6" spacing, but there is a long "tube" created with no quilting in between. Thx.

Very nice quilt.

I wish I had seen this earlier. I have a crib quilt and a lap quilt I'm trying to quilt on my DM. This would be soooo much easier.

As you are not using a walking foot, what type of sewing machine are you using? What type of battting? Are you using a "pattern type backing fabric?"

Love your quilt, the colors and pattern. You did a great job on it. I also think the Bay Side Quilting site is a good tutorial to check out their Fun & Done method.

Thanks for the Bayside quilting website, love her method, easiest one I have seen yet and so pretty too.

Good job! I am intrigued with your method. I think I will try that.

Very pretty. Thanks for sharing.

Quilt as you go
 

It's a beautifiul quilt, love the bright colors. I'm a little of both - piecer and quilter, but I have been fascinated by the QAYG method, that I first learned about from a book by Georgia Bonesteel. I think I'll have to pull that book out again, as I don't like sandwiching my larger quilts. Nicely done though - an inspiration.

Your technique is interesting. I'll have to try it. Thanks for sharing - esp. pics. Great quilt.

Love your quilt. Please do take pictures of how you are doing it. I hate to do the actual quilting and certainly can't afford to send it out to be done so this way could work out nicely.

You picked a good QAYG. The two methods I have been taught, although easy, block by block, is a nightmare, row by row. It also makes a very heavy quilt with all the folded over seams and such.

How do you get the back of the quilt and the batting quilted then? As I assume you quilt the top rows before you sew them together. Am I right? Love your idea, as having someone quilt your quilts is getting so expensive.

Cool quilt!!!!

Here's a slightly different method of quilt as you go: http://www.quiltingboard.com/resources/article-73.html

Here is a video that (I think) is very similar to the method used by gigigray. The differences are that gigi used pieced rows instead of strips and she started in the middle and worked outward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl_OPPpXNLM

Yes Tate the you tube video you posted is very similar to the method I use, except that I start in the center of the quilt and work out. All my strips or pieced rows are the same length so I don't have to square up the quilt when finished. I'm in the process of making another and will post pictures when I get the rows completed.

So there are no vertical seams (creating vertical "quilting")? I understand how you are sewing on the rows, but those lengths of fabric running horizontal on the quilt must also need stitching as recommended on batting packages, right?
Thx for clarifying.

So the back of the quilt is not quilted like the blocks on the front then, is that right? The backing would only have the flip and sew seam lines on? I assume you quilted the front rows before you put the batting on. Am I correct?