Assembly Line Quilts...Am I Crazy?
 

Sometimes, I think that I'm just a glutton for punishment. I'm considering making 4 or 5 quilts as Christmas gifts this year for my family members. I know...I only have about 7 weeks to pull this feat off. Any tips?

Note: I do quilt as you go, so if you do a full quilt top you would do #5 between #2 and #3.

I'm making 2 quilts right now for family members and they are the same pattern, just different color/fabric design. It goes fast because I'm not having to rethink everything for the second quilt - because of doing one right after the other on each step.

I did it like this:

I complete each step for both - first for one quilt and then repeat for the 2nd quilt - before moving to the next step

1. Cut all the fabric/backing/batting/ for both - including sashing/binding (keep in separate containers/piles - with pieces labled)

2. Assembled cut pieces into blocks

3. Sandwiched blocks/borders for both quilts - (note I do quilt as you go - so each block gets sandwiched as well as borders)

4. Quilted each block/border

5. Assembled blocks/borders into rows (across and down)

6. Sewed binding on
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I will be making an additional 4 quilts of a different pattern than the one above, all four will be the same pattern, different colors/fabric design. I'll do the same with these 4 as I did with the first two above.
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If I was making different patterns for each quilt - I would probably just do one quilt at a time to keep from getting confused on the patterns.

Gosh, I'd give it a try like Ru described...however, I find I some times get confused about which stack to go to next if the same fabric is used for all.

My advice? Make them small.

Three Yard Quilts by Fabric Cafe. Watch their youtube channel to see all the patterns. Some are easy enough to make with no rush in a few days, and look great. Fabric choice is the key. Also I can make a large size rag quilt in a day completely finished using my Accuquilt.

Are you planning to do the quilting yourself or send it out? If the latter, check on the longarmer's schedule.

Doing it yourself would be made much more efficient (you could multitask) if you have a longarm with robotics.

I second Onebyone and mck. It's probably too late to get them to the long arm quilter and back by Christmas. Most Three Yard Quilts are fast and easy. I suggest you choose one of her patterns with larger pieces. Use a batting with scrim, like warm and natural. That way, the quilting can be as far as 10" apart and won't take forever. As Tartan suggested, I would do them in different colorways to reduce confusion.
I made Roman Holiday from the Quick as a Wink booklet. It was fast and easy. I would suggest you buy a little more of the fabric you will use for binding, as her bindings are just a single fold binding and I prefer the double fold.
It can be done, but I hope you're retired, as it will take lots of time to do.
bkay

I'm quilting them myself on my domestic.

Thanks everyone...I haven't heard of 3 yard quilts. I'll look them up. My kids tend to like more modern designs, so that could be a blessing. Some of those only use 2 fabrics and are fairly easy to put together. Time to go through my stash!