QUILT AS YOU GO {TIPS TO REMEMBER}

WHEN

I made my 

Blueberry Crumb Quilt,

I decided to try the

Quilt As You Go (QAYG)

 method

at the last minute.

While I was quilting,

I jotted down a few tips that I wanted to remember for next time.

This is my Blueberry Crumb Quilt.

You can read about this quilt saga HERE

.

There are a couple of links within the post which

will lead you to all of the posts related to the quilt.

As I mentioned before,

this was my first time

using the QAYG method.

I did a quick (meaning I remember reading about it somewhere)

search of the blogs

and I found this tutorial on

MaureenCracknellHandmade's blog.

I followed her tutorial

and I made a few notes for my own personal reference.

Her are my thoughts:

Quilting the Blocks

• After you have made all of your blocks, cut your quilt batting into squares that measure at least 1" larger than you block on all sides. 
• In the case of my quilt, the blocks were 12 1/2" so I cut the batting squares to 14 1/2".
• Pros:This is an excellent way to use up your scrap pieces of quilt batting that you have left over from previous projects.
• Cons: This is a time consuming process. In my case, I needed a total of  90 blocks for the two quilts and it seemed like I was cutting quilt batting forever...just ask my tennis elbow & empty bottle of Advil.

• Place the quilt blocks in the center of the quilt batting. Baste the blocks using your preferred method. I tend to use the curved quilter's safety pins and boy did I use a ton of them on this project.
• Pros: I found it much easier to baste each individual block versus basting an entire quilt at once (My knees were much happier that I didn't have to spend all of that time bending over my quilt on the tile floor!)
• I set everything up into piles: one pile of quilt blocks, one pile of quilt batting squares, and one large container of safety pins. Whenever I had a free moment, I would walk over and baste a few quilt squares.
• In the end, I had a hefty pile of basted quilt squares that were ready at a moment's notice to be quilted.

• Quilt each square using your preferred method.
• I am a fanatic for straight line quilting using my walking foot. For these quilts and this QAYG method, I thought that it would be great to quilt each quilt block differently.  I chose 4 different straight line quilting motifs:

Squares Within Squares

Diagonal Lines

Horizontal Lines

X Marks The Spot (which was my favorite)

• Pros: This is a time friendly process. I would sit down in between tasks (like doing homework, walking the dog, making dinner, etc.) and I would quilt a few blocks! Before I knew it I was done quilting all of the blocks.
• This was also the least stressed out that I have ever been when quilting a quilt! I don't know about you, but when I normally quilt my quilts I tense up: my shoulders get stiff and I tend to wrinkle my brow because I am concentrating really hard on what I am doing! (and wrinkling anything is not a good thing) Not this time, just me and my blocks without a care in the world.
• I also liked the fact that I didn't have a HUGE quilt just hanging/sitting on my quilt table...you know what I mean...when you stop quilting for a minute/or an hour and your quilt is sitting at you machine with the needle down!

• When all of the blocks are quilted, trim the blocks down to the appropriate size.
• Pros: All of your blocks are perfectly quilted and cut to the correct size.
• Cons: Once again, this is a time consuming step, which didn't help my carpal tunnel and requirement for more Advil.

• In the end, I loved looking at the back of all of those quilted blocks. They made such a lovely stack:

Joining The Blocks Together

• With Right Sides Together (RST), sew two quilted blocks together. 
• Matching your seams together using this method can be tricky because you really can't see your seams because of the quilt batting.

• I checked and rechecked my seams several times to make sure that they would match up. Be sure to use LOTS of pins during this step.

• After you have sewn your blocks together, press the back seams OPEN. This will help to reduce the bulk that can easily become a hot mess.

• Continue to joins all of your squares into rows. Press each of your seams OPEN.

• Once all of the rows have been sewn together, give the front of the quilt a really, really good pressing.

Adding The Backing Fabric

• Now you will add the quilted top to your backing fabric. 
• I did this the same way that I would normally baste a quilt...the good old fashioned quilt sandwich.
• Pros: The top of the quilt was already quilted and I didn't have to deal with all of those "puckering" issues that you normally have when you are trying to smooth out the three layers of the quilt.
• Cons: I had to get back down on the floor to baste the three layers together...once again my aching knees. Because of the weight of the quilt, I used a lot of pins just to be sure that everything was secure. I haven't used spray baste in a long time and it might be a good option for the QAYG method.

• Add your final stitches to join the backing fabric.
• Since the front/quilt top was already quilted, I chose to simply stitch in the ditch along all of the rows and columns. I didn't want to add any additional quilting lines to the front of the quilt and it gives the back of the quilt a simple, completed look.

Final Thoughts

• I enjoyed the QAYG process and I would do it again for all of my larger quilts. 
• Remember that with all of the additional cutting of the quilt batting and basting of each quilt block, this process takes much longer than the usual quilting process.
• I would practice on a smaller project before tackling something larger.
• I would also be cautious if you have lots of points on the block that need to match up when you are joining your blocks together because you really can't see the seams because of the quilt batting.
• I give the process "two thumbs up"!

Until Next Time...Happy Quilting

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