QAYG method

My Votes For Women is in 3 quilted sections and is ready to join together into one big quilt. This blog post highlights some of the things I have learned about the technical challenges of using the "Quilt-As-You-Go" method of joining blocks or sections of a quilt together. A few years ago I took a fabulous QAYG class with Martha Schellingerhoud and she showed us 3 methods of joining the quilted sections by hand and/or by machine. This blogpost is not meant to be a tutorial for the technique, I am just sharing some tips that I have learned along the way. You can click here for a great step-by-step lesson with photos. I am not using the exact same joining method as shown in this link, but it's similar. 

1) For this method of joining, I do not quilt near the edge of the sections. I give myself at least 1" between any quilting and the edge of the quilt. See where the screw driver is pointing to? That is as far as I quilt until after the sections are joined.  Believe me, it will just be easier to handle if you join the sections the way I am with this quilt.



2) Trim all sections carefully - the backing, and the quilt top should all be exactly the same size. The batting will be trimmed 1/4" more by hand once the sections are joined. 




3) To join the quilted sections together, use lots of pins. You are joining two sections with right sides together and are only sewing the quilt top edges together. 
Pin the edges together and then pin the batting back and out of the way so you don't sew it accidentally. Pin more. Don't even attempt to join two large sections without pinning it to death. And then add 2 more pins! I guarantee that you will not be happy with how everything lines up (or not!) if you don't use all the pins you own.

4) Once the sections are attached, I lay the whole thing out on the table and trim any excess batting between the sections with scissors, being very very careful not to cut any fabric. I trim the batting in a slightly wavy line, which I like to think prevents the join from being too visible. I'm not sure if it effectively does that or not, but it's what I do. Then I hand stitch the batting together using a ladder stitch. When all of these steps are done well, the batting will lie flush and flat, with no gaps along the join.

5) The last step is to fold over at least 1/4" on the edge of one panel and hand stitch/applique it on top of the other panel, just as you would stitch a binding edge. I like to do this by hand so that there are no stitches on the front of the quilt from the join.

6) Once the seams are all finished on the back, then you can add more quilting. I plan to quilt all the horizontal seams from one side of the quilt to the other, which further holds all the batting sections together. And then I'll probably do more quilting... the blocks are heavily quilted, so the sashing will likely need more quilting.

Quilt-as-you-go is a construction method I enjoy since it allows me to do all my own quilting, even on the largest quilts. These are two of my other quilts I have finished using this technique - Swoon, and Scrappy Memories. 

Design Wall Monday

My March UFO blocks are still on the design wall this week. 

I am attempting to join them together in a quilt-as-you-go style. I have the vertical sashings pinned on, and am having a dickens of a time getting the sashings centered. For a while I really tried hard to fix it. I gave it my best effort, sewing and unsewing several times, by machine and by hand. But not a single one would agree to be centered. How is that possible?!?  There is no logical explanation for why this is happening. I have done this many times before without any problem. (Click here to see my favorite scrappy QAYG quilt from 3 years ago)
Sometimes circumstances defy logic. 
Or tasks defy ability?
Finally the quilt and I had a little

chat about the options. 
Choice A - quilt goes back in the UFO closet again, or 
Choice B - quilter learns to be satisfied with consistently uncentered sashing.
We agreed on choice B, and I will be hand stitching the sashing this week. It is an interesting experience to carry on, while trying not focus on the glaring problem. There must be a life lesson in there somewhere?!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

June UFO is FINISHED!

I cannot tell you how excited I am that this quilt is finally finished! I started it in February 2007, so it's about 4 1/2 years old. The size of "Scrappy Memories" is 48" x 56".

I learned how to line up the sashings more accurately and practised with each row, so by the end I was getting much better at it. But the first long sashing was still bugging me, so I took the entire first row off and reattached it. It made me like the quilt so much more! 

I used my new ripping tool that I bought in Vermont and it worked quite well.

This was my first Quilt-As-You-Go (QAYG) project and I have decided I do like the technique. I used the same technique as on Andrea's tutorial over at Welsh Quilter. I liked it so much that a) I have started another QAYG quilt to use up scraps from my Indian Orange Peel quilt, and b) I signed up for a QAYG class in the fall with Martha Shellingerhoud. 
I have written before about the challenges in finishing this quilt - click here if you missed the gory details!

These are the great things about this quilt...

1) it used up a lot of leftovers including bazillions of small scraps of fabric, as well as lots of small bits of leftover batting of all kinds. I mixed them all together - bamboo, cotton, blends, etc and you can't tell at this point that they aren't all the same. It will be interesting to see how they hold up over the years of washing. On the back of the quilt are random squares of purple from my stash.

2) I will always remember hand stitching the sashings on the back of the blocks while having movie nights with my Mom. She received these old 1950's Howard Keel movies for Christmas and we had lots of laughs watching them.

Challenge Summary: for the 2011 UFO Challenge we each set our own projects goals and mine were to finish (as in quilted, bound, and labelled) 12 quilts. As of the half way mark of 2011, I have finished 5 out of 6 of my UFO's. (My spiderweb quilt just needs quilting and then all 6 will be finished)...woohoo!

UFO report

Now don't laugh, but I am being amazingly self disciplined this week. I am!  I have already washed most of the fabrics I purchased last week (well, except some beautiful FQ packages that I will admire for a while before I think about using them!) AND I am not starting anything new until I finish this month's UFO. Unbelievable, but true!
When in the US I bought a few boxes of the Color Catcher Sheets that I love. There wasn't a lot of dye transfer on the sheets I threw in with my mystery fabrics (which are mostly from the Moda Sweetwater Pure line) so now I won't feel worried about washing the finished quilt.
This is the latest update of quilt #8 on my UFO wish list that is supposed to be finished for the UFO challenge by the end of June. The first 3 rows are done, 3 of the 4 blocks for row 4 are finished, and row 5 is a mess. Hey, I still have 1 more whole day to finish it!

Design Wall Monday #48

Since this is the last Monday of the year, and by my count this is my 48th Design Wall Monday (and not my 52nd) I must have missed a couple of posting along the way! However, that is a pretty good effort and I am pleased with how these Monday postings have helped to move projects along.  I have received some great ideas in the comments/feedback of these postings, and sometimes the encouragement to continue has really helped to keep a project out of the UFO dungeon! I definitely plan to continue with these Monday postings in 2011. Thanks to Judy for organizing this opportunity.
I have been stalled with my Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll mystery quilt since step #3. Partly it was because of finishing Christmas projects, but partly because I thought if I was going to string piece some blocks, I should be working on this quilt.

This is a project that is on my UFO wish list and hasn't been seen on my blog for about 4 years! It is my first, and likely my only, "quilt-as-you-go" project. I started string piecing these blocks at a quilting retreat in February 2007 to use up some scraps. (You can click here to see the first blocks). I have been working on it periodically over the years and received some string scraps from Julie earlier this year that I been using up and really want to finish this quilt in 2011.
There are 2 reasons why this thing is taking forever to finish.
1) When I picked up the project after a long hiatus, I made a big mistake. Can you spot it in the block on the bottom right??

I forgot that I was making light and dark sides, and made many string blocks just totally scrappy, which wrecked my pattern. So when I finally remembered my original plan, I had to decide whether to take the scrappy blocks apart or use them as is. Some were just too terrible scrappy to be included and needed to be reconstructed, and some are going to be carefully placed as outside blocks.

2) The second problem is that although I love string piecing the individual blocks, I really dislike sewing the blocks together. I am joining the blocks together using the method that Andrea showed on her tutorial here. And I get a lot of this problem...

No matter how careful I am, and how I fuss around with pinning, it seems impossible to match up these seams when joining up the long rows. So I have decided to just accept that "endearing quality" about this quilt and just get it done! This project is on my 2011 UFO list so look for more postings about it next year.
What's on your design wall as we come to the end of 2010?

Getting Reorganized

I am finally getting reorganized from quilt retreat. I was away a couple of days and then in denial for a while, and now I have to face the fact that retreat is over for another year and I have to clean up!
This was the pile of stuff that sat for days waiting to be put away. Some of the projects are back in the cupboard (probably until next year's retreat) and some of them I am determined to finish up.
I organized a couple of projects into these scrapbooking storage boxes with everything I need to work on the blocks... my needle case, scissors, and thread.  These are my quilt-as-you-go string blocks and I am sewing the twosies into foursies using purple sashing. I wanted to finish these during the olympics but I got so wrapped up in watching the action and cheering for the athletes, that I didn't get much accomplished at all. Here is the pile of blocks waiting to be sewn together, which I like to do by hand.

Back from retreat

I can't believe that my quilting retreat is over already. It was a wonderful getaway as always and very inspiring to see all the amazing bags, tablerunners, wallhangings, and quilts being made by quilting friends.
This is my project tally:
11 projects made the trip this year...I tried to be more realistic and reduced by 3 from last year!
5 did not get opened (apparently I am still a little overly optimistic!)
2 new projects were started...1 from stash scraps (see below) and 1 from a kit which I disliked and put away quickly
4 ongoing projects saw some major progress however I have no finishes to announce...I spread my time working on various projects until I felt like working on something else
One of my goals was to start the machine quilting on Carolina Crossroads which I finished piecing at retreat 2 years ago and pieced the backing for last weekend. Don't you just hate it when the bobbin runs out in the middle of machine quilting!  This quilt now has about 3 bobbins worth of quilting and it's maybe 1/3 finished.
My new project that I enjoyed working on is Quiltville's Scrappy Trips Around the World. I used some fabric from a scrap bag I bought at Hancock's in Paducah last year, plus lots of fabric from my stash. This photo shows the 20 blocks I pieced.  It was fun to sew and a great stash reducer. I want to make at least 4 more blocks, but I had sewn as many strips as I brought with me.

I took along the box of scraps that Julie sent to me - click here. I gave away a few pieces that some friends were coveting, then pressed the strings, sorting them into lights and darks, and sewed them into the Quilt-As-You-Go blocks I have been working on since 2007. I had hoped to make more progress on this project with sewing the blocks into rows, but I got so distracted with watching the Olympics that I didn't get much done! I did get the finished blocks sewn into twosies and the sashings are ready to be hand stitched.

This photo of me reminds me of Bonnie's blogpost about quilters dressing to match their quilts - click here. I am sewing with purple thread and working on purple sashing with a purple backing...and wearing purple!
That's the report for 2010 quilt retreat. Now I am off to get some much needed sleep!

Sewing scraps

Last year I took this photo while visiting my quilting friend Judy. She is a prolific and talented quilter, but she doesn't love scraps like I do, so she generously shares them with me. We had a fun afternoon sorting through her scrap basket. Isn't this a wonderful looking pile?!? I must admit to having received quite a few wonderful scrap bags from this friend. But now it is catching up with me. My desire to have the fabric has outgrown my space to store it, and this has motivated me to get working on some scrap projects.

One of these projects is a "quilt-as-you-go" scrap quilt, with purple fabrics for the backing, and on the front, half the block is light and half is dark scraps. I started working on it at the quilt retreat (see March 2nd entry for a photo of some of the blocks) and I have had a hard time putting it away since then. Every night this week, when I had a bit of time to sew, I have been working on these blocks. I now have 30 blocks trimmed and ready to sew together, which is not nearly enough to make a decent size quilt. I am enjoying working on it however, I must put it away as I have some other projects for which I have deadlines looming, and really have to get to work on those.

Retreat Fun

I am back from my 3 day quilting retreat. I sure had a great time at the retreat...did lots of laughing, visited with old friends, enjoyed yummy food (for which I didn't have to plan, shop, cook or do any dishes!!) and revelled in the seemingly endless time for sewing. I always learn a few new tips and get re-energized about quilting when I see all the beautiful projects that everyone else is working on.
I brought a pile of teal scraps and fat quarters that were donated to the charity quilt program at the guild. I don't have any teal fabric in my stash and have never made anything in teal, so I thought this would be a good challenge for myself. The first evening I cut the 2 1/2" strips to make the scrappy bargello quilt on the Quiltville website and started to piece the strip sets. This is a photo of me sewing the second strip set....the first pieced panel is behind me on the design wall. That was a fairly boring job, but made fun by the other quilters comraderie and encouragement. I didn't have enough fabric to make the pattern as shown on the website which has 4 panels, and I had to do some piecing together to get enough squares to make it 3 panels. It turned out okay, but by the second day I was really
hating teal even more!

When that top was finished I got out an old UFO, which is a small quilt for the Memory Quilts program at the guild. I had pieced it years ago, and it was quilted by Ruthanne Finnegan. After I sewed the binding on, I hung it on the design wall with a note asking if someone was willing to hand sew the binding down. Miraculously it was a finished quilt within the hour! Don't you just love binding fairies?!?! The finished quilt is on the right.
Then I had a real change of gears and opened up a new miniature paper piecing pattern, which was a gift from my retreat roommate. She thought it would be a challenge for me and she was right! It is a Carolina Lily pattern on pre-printed tissue paper. I have done tons of paper piecing and usually really enjoy it, but this was quite a challenge. I have never sewn on tissue paper before and it was quite fragile....ripping easily. And the seam matching was difficult. I had to sew a main seam twice, and even then it didn't quite match up. I'll try to fix it with a green marker! The pattern had 24 blocks in it, and since the first one took 3 hours, I'm guessing I won't be making all 24 blocks!!

After supper on the second day, I took out the guild Blocks of the Month from October, which were blue 9 patch blocks with a white centre. I cut the blocks into 4 equal pieces, an idea which I first saw on the Quilted Forest website for a mystery quilt. Then we had a chance to play around with possible block layouts on the design wall. By the time all the blocks were ready (one had to be re-sewn to be the proper size and two new blocks were made to make the number of rows we wanted) it was getting late, so I selected the layout that had the fewest number of seams to match, and the easiest construction requiring the least amount of brain power....which was the bottom right layout. A big thank you to Barb for all her late night help with the unsewing, and seam pressing.
On the morning of the third day, I started a quilt-as-you-go project to try and make a dent in one of my scrap bins. I used 6 1/2" pieces of leftover batting, a variety purple pieces for the backings, and made one half of the block dark scraps and the other half light scraps. I only got 14 blocks finished before it was time to pack up and go home. I'm not sure I like the black and white pieces as they really jump out at you...I might remove those. But it is looking like a happy quilt and will be a good demo piece for the guild "newbie day" demo.
So those are all the projects I worked on at retreat. My next blog entry will be on the downside of quilting retreats....believe it or not, it's not all good!