CAK44

I think I want to try a quilt as you go quilt. Those of you who have made these are you pleased with the overall finished project? What pattern or instructions helped you the most, your tips are always so helpful.

Stitchnripper

I used the "fun and done" method and I enjoyed it and was happy with the results. Good luck with it.

judi_lynne

I may not be the best person to answer this as I am a new quilter and only working on my 3rd one, but decided I wanted to do this one "quilt as I go" since I can't handle the quilts in my machine. Here is a link for (sort of) the method that I used. I was making my procedure up as I went along and then a friend of mine gave me this link and since it is comparable to what I was doing with mine, I think it would be a good link for you. Most of the tutorials I have seen have a sashing around the blocks on the front side. That would have ruined my pattern, so I opted for my way. I will post pictures when I have finished. My option allowed me to quilt all the way to my 1/4" seam allowance as well.

http://www.secretsof.com/content/624

This tutorial does it block by block; For mine, I joined a block of (4) 12" x 12" blocks together and worked with those size sections. The one thing that I had to do was cut my batting back by 1/4" along each edge, so that when I sewed my 1/4" seams (when joining the sections), the batting edges would be just butting each other and not overlapping, which would make that seam a little thick. I also left a 2-1/2" backing overflow on all sides of my 4 blocks until I could decide which edge I wanted to have the SEAM for the overlap material. When I joined those 4 blocks with my second set of 4 blocks, I put right sides together, I trimmed the overlapping material from ONE EDGE of the set of 4 blocks (for the seam I was working on, not all 4 sides) so I would only have one overlapping edge. You would need to be consistent throughout each vertical and horizontal row for this. I FOLDED BACK the extra (overlapping material) so the folded edge ran down the edge of my block. So when I sewed my 1/4" seam, I was creating one seamfor the built-in binding (so to speak). Then if you look at your seam on your backing you just lay that "binding" over the seam, turn it under, and sew it down (I did mine by hand).

This is one of those things you are just going to have to see to believe I guess. Cause when I read it back I'm thinking "how on earth is anyone going to understand this?" I don't have any pictures of it as of yet.

I know this is confusing, but I'm going to throw it out there and see what happens. Cause you guys are all smart!!! And maybe you all can give me some better tips or ideas.

Thank you!

athenagwis

I used this one:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-36303-1.htm

You can machine sew your back binding as she did, or I have also sewn my folded binding on at the same time as I sew the first front piece, then I hand stitch it down. But I have found this method to be fast and easy and I think it's stronger than the method where you use the backing fabric as the sashing in the front.

Cheers!
Rachel

Oklahoma Suzie

I do want to try it.