Patrice, this is the quilt I am trying to quilt in sections. I love to design quilts, but it doesn't mean I will know how to quilt it. Thats one of the things I dont like about EQ5, it doesnt tell you how to quilt it once you design it.

Well I guess as a beginner I shouldn't design something that is beyond my capabilities as a quilter, but I cant help myself, it is so much fun.

Well I will show you what I decide to do. wish me luck

i love that design. it looks like an excellent quilt for somebody who thinks of herself as a beginner. each element is fairly simple, but put together the overall look is complex. the hard part for me would be deciding how to divide it up for quilting.

that's going to be a huge ego boost when it's done. AND you will no longer be allowed to call yourself a beginner.
:P

i'd stitch in the ditch around the stars and other special elements to make the pattern pop. then stipple the squares.

ok. back up. let me be honest. i'd stitch in the ditch and attempt the stippling. i have yet to work up the courage to try freemotion quilting. one of the things i like best about QAYG is that i can machine quilt some fairly complicated motifs without having to suffer the challeng of freemotion. some day, though ... some day ...

Beautiful design, maybe try some trapunto on the blue paisley parts. You could of course stitch in the ditch around your stars. The floral one looks like an easy tiny leaf stippling would be great if your embroidery machine has that stitch.

Donnalou, I guess you missed the part about I am a beginner. trapunto, yeah right. I have problems sewing a straight seam. thanks for the suggestion though. maybe in a couple of years I will try it. lol

I am struggling with how to divide it up now, as soon as I conquer matching the seams up properly. my problem is when I cut out the templates they are never the same when I go to sew them together. I have been thinking that it might be because I use paper templates printed out from the program and use scissors to cut them out.

In the future, I think I will make templates out of something more sustantial.

I was thinking of outline quilting the star points and maybe do a pattern in the some of the blocks and some stippling in other blocks.

I tried stippling on the baby quilt I just completed and it didnt come out half bad. Some of the stitches were different sizes, but not too noticeable. I understand practice makes perfect.

I love your design. I also have EQ5 have design a few but haven't attempted to do any of the yet. Good luck I know it will come out great

thanks, am trying to figure out how to section it to quilt in sections.

I like EQ5 for the designing, but it has a lot of bugs

This is a picture of where I am at . I am not sure if I should go straight up the middle, or do the entire center.
If I go up the middle, I will have to match points.
What would you do?

patience, Grasshopper. the wheels are turnin'

:wink:

Looks great so far never tried quilt as you go so not sure how it works. I'm sure you will get plenty of suggestions soon

Method 1:

stitch the blocks together in rows.
sandwich the backing, batting and top for the first row
leave at least two or three inches of extra back and batting at the sides and top, but trim the batting so it's just a leeeetle bit more than a 1/4" short of the bottom edge of the backing in and top.
quilt that sucker right up to the edges if you want.

lay down the batting for the next row
put the backing right-side up on top
next, put the quilted row on top - front facing up
then put down the next row of the top - face down - just as you would do if you were only assembling the top.
match your seams, pin into place
sew your quarter inch seam through all the layers

when you flip the back and front, you'll have the three layers in proper order.
quilt that sucker right to the edges, too

repeat this process until you've done all the rows.

if you pieced the border, too, the only thing left to do is the binding.

if you haven't added the borders yet, do so now. use the same method you used for the rows.

c'est voila!!!! all quilted and no hand stitching needed to close or cover any of the seams.

bind that puppy and show it off to the world.
:mrgreen:

gee you make it sounds so easy. Hopefuly I won't mess it up when I try thanks Patrice

you'll do just fine, i'm sure.

you can use the same method to assemble the quilt as though it was a big log cabin block. just start in the center and add the rows as you go around instead of one under the other. it just hit me - how cool would it look if you chose different fabrics for the "logs" on the back just as you would if you were making a block? reversible quilt!!!

i love 2-fers
:P

In the 2nd paragraph, isn't the batting going to be too thick? I told you I was stupid about this. Also I have already bought the muslin for the backing.

I have only used muslin for my bed size quilts because you need so much. But on the baby quilts I used fabric. I have to say they looked much better.

So now if I use the muslin, which is white is that going to be a problem when piecing?

Are you just loving being my personal quilt teacher, pretty soon I will have to start paying you. lol

Also I already stitched the middle 2 rows together. I like the idea about going around, but I will have to get my brain around how to do that, and also the muslin.

Even if I wanted to change my mind and use fabric, I wouldn't know what to use. I have a lot of fabric, but nothing that would match, and if I did I wouldnt have enough.

the batting will not be too thick. since you trim away that little bit from the edge the next set of blocks gets sewn to, it all comes together and doesn't overlap.

if you don't trust yourself, practice a little with some sample blocks. you'll have the hang of it in no time. trust me. if i can do it, so can you.

the white muslin shouldn't present any problems but unless you know it won't shrink more than the fabrics on the front, i do recommend you prewash it and throw it into a high heat dryer to preshrink.

and if you decide to use patterned fabrics for the back ... who says they have to match the front? who says the back has to be made from only one fabric? have some fun, girl. LOL

as long as you use colors on the back that will not clash too badly with the binding, it'll be just fine. reversible. 2 quilts fer the work of 1 (a 2-fer).

the good feeling you get when you've proved to yourself that you can do it will make a very nice "payment", thank you.
:P

Thanks Patrice, I am going to practice for a while until I get the hang of it. I will show my work as I go along. Now u can get back to your stuff.
Thanks again, Mary

First of all, I like he design and your fabrics too. 2nd Ptarice should start teaching full time cause she makes it all seem so easy! I am still plugging away on Aunt Hatties Garden. IF I ever get it done, I'll post a picture. I am sooooo inspired by all this talent! Amazing :-)

first of all, thank you. :-)

second of all ... ever heard that old saying, "them as can does; them as can't teaches"?

what i hope is that someday i can do both. i have several more skills to develop before i could consider myself even remotely qualified to step up in front of a class.

but i love you for thinking i could.
:P

In my case, I'd love to be able to quilt all I wanted, but it doesn't put food on the table. The company I work for expects employees to invest in a 401--very little pension handed out just for being here so long--in my case 18 years. Unfortunately I have a HUGE appetite for both food and fabric, so I am stuck for 2 more years and IF Uncle Sam isn't broke by then, I'm outa here. But Patrice, you know you have the skills, because of the way you methodically explain everything to all of us. You could do it! Might not get rich, but then look at Eleanor Burns and Georgia Bonesteel. They are not on the corner with a tin cup for donations by any means. Give it a shot!

i also have a rather annoying need for food once in a while, so i can relate. LOL

i'm not old enough yet to be eligible for regular retirement from civil service. the buyout bonus for retiring early is a joke. soooooooo i'm "stuck" for a few more years. between now and then, i'm going to keep working on my skills and do a bit of market testing to see whether or not i could make a little part time living. i suspect i could sell my designs, but i so much hate paying for a pattern myself i don't know if i could force myself to charge for them. LOL

in the meantime, whenever you want a lesson, just come on down to Georgia. you'll get room, board, all the lessons you want. free of charge. ;-)

Thanks Vicki, and you are right about Patrice, she is great, and I know if she wants it bad enough she will do it, she is a great teacher. Mary

You know Patrice, I dont know how big a house you have, but some people charge umungous amounts of money to go to a quilting retreat. Too much for me to afford. But how about if you charge half as much. You could make some money and people like me might be able to afford it. Think about it. Mary

I'd come and do breakfast! I love to cook (and eat) almost as much as I love to quilt! :lol:

Yeah!! And those of us that can't cook can buy some groceries!!! :lol:

if there are more than four of you at once, somebody had better bring bring tents and sleeping bags. other than that ... the more the merrier, i always say.
:P

I've got no problem with sleeping in the tent

Trust me... GA heat is not nice!! Let's just rent hotel rooms... A/c, showers, no humidity, no mosquitos and other funky night time bugs!! (Last summer we were camping and a locust flew into the camper. I thought my 5 year old niece was going to make us a new doorway through the bathroom. It was funny... AFTER we got the bug back outside. She still laughs about it... but she also asks if another one will ever come in again.) Just thought I'd share that camping moment.

i'll bet you guys think i'm kiddin'.

mine is a humble abode, but any of you would be welcome any time. i'll be out of town for memorial day weekend - and isn't there a quilt thing in NC in June we were talking about a while ago? other than that, i just need enough notice to hide the empty bottles and push all the dust bunnies back under the bed where they belong.
:mrgreen:

Overcharging them again Patrice?

tim in san jose

if i can ever think up a snappy comeback, you are in beeeeeeeeeeeg trouble, Mister.
:twisted:

PARTY AT PATRICE'S... Memorial Day Weekend!

WhoooooWheeeee!

tim in san jose

make sure you feed the dogs and let them out regularly.
clean up after yourselves.
leave me a case of diet coke.

oh ... and no runnin' nekkid through the neighborhood. my neighbors are such sticks in the mud.
;-)

Okay, I'm trying to understand this. Are you saying that the batting is not
one piece. that you cut the batting the size of the block rows ? do you start at the top and work your way down?

that's one way to do it. there are so many methods for quilting as you go i've lost count. and new ones are being discovered as we speak. here's a link to instructions for a few of those methods. if you search this board on "quilting in sections" and "quilt as you go" you'll find comments and links to other methods and book recommendations.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_quilting/article/0,1789,HGTV_3298_1507325,00.html

Thanks for the site referral..I think I understand it some. wouldn't videos be so much more helpful? I guess when you've quilted a long time you can understand written directions better than those of us who just started to quilt and need those visuals!

I'm a visual learner too! And I love being able to rewind a tape to see a step over again if I need to.

Georgia Bonesteel had some instructions on VHS for her lap quilting projects. They show up on Ebay now and then and may still be available online. The one I have is from 1996, so they may be available in dvd format now if offerred at all.

I caught a Donna Dewberry show on PBS and she has a great quick method for small projects for quilt as you go. Those videos are available through PBS, or her one stroke painting site.

HGTV has a video on Simple Quilts from Alex Anderson that shows step by step the methods for Quilt as you go. . If you can't find it... let me know I'll look up the site.

found thehttp://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,HGTV_22056_58466,00.html?c=6619 site... Hope this helps. Quilter 1234

sorry ladies, when I tried the site it didn't work.... let me try again.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,HGTV_22056_58466,00.html?c=6619 I think there were too many letters in the other site :( :shock: . I am not the best with computers. Anyway, I hope you like the site... I think they do a nice job of demonstrating QAYG. Quilter 1234

That's gonna be one gorgeous quilt. I can't wait to see it done up.