In 1987, I taught myself the
"quilt as you go" method for making quilts. Shown is one of the quilts I made with this technique that year.
Our youngest daughter (April) was born that year.
I used my own blouses made from Indian cotton as the starting point for this white crazy quilt.
Each 5 inch block was constructed and quilted at the same time using stitch, flip and a sewing machine. The blocks are joined with sashing on the reverse side. I thought this quilt was lost, but I found it yesterday. (read more about that discovery on
100 quilts.
Log cabin (above) was also made in 1987. (quilt as you go method)
Blackwork was also made in 1987. Quilt as you go technique.
Above - the first quilt I made when we moved to Manitoulin in 1993.
A bed size scrap - quilt as you go technique.
The last time I used this method was seventeen years ago.
Hearth Rug For Hestia in 1998. It is hand quilted.
9 comments:
just had a look through your (more than) 100 quilts, a fantastic body of work!
Thanks Mo.
There are still quite a few quilts not documented yet in the 100 quilts list.
Because I made them before digital cameras. Because I gave so many early quilts away without photographing.
x
You were way ahead of the us, using scraps and string quilting. I haven't gotten around to the quilt as you go method. Seems like a good idea. I hadn't thought of using it in a crazy quilt design. Love that crazy quilt in mostly whites especially!
What a delight to find a quilt you'd thought was 'lost'! I love QAYG...and will be using it soon to do throw quilts for in-coming refugees. Never tried it with Crazy Quilting, but you've got me thinking... :-)
I love Hearth Rug especially...did you quiltasyougo each block and then join the blocks? If so, what happens to that giant seam between blocks? How does the sashing work with that? Signed, Stumped in PA
Such a good question Julie. Partly the reason I stopped making these machine quilted quickies is because of those bulky seams.
In the earlier pieces, I sewed a strip of sashing at the same time and in the same seam as the two machine quilted blocks (right sides together). This sashing came through to the back of the quilt. then, on the reverse side, trimmed the machine blocks to a quarter inch and hand whipped the sashing over to hide all that.
For the bed quilt with the blue sashing - I layered quilt batt with the sash and sewed the sashing with its batt to the pre-machine quilted block as if piecing a quilt that wasn't already quilted. Lastly, the back sash was sewn on by hand.
For Hearth Rug for Hestia - I was fed up with all the hand sewing of sashes and the ugly backs, so I just did the stitch and flip construction-quilting onto batting only. These I arranged and machine seamed with small 1/4 inch seams and made a quilt top that consisted of those two layers. I backed this with a whole piece of cloth and then hand quilted the piece. Hearth Rug has double quilting.
I hope this helps.
x
Thank you so much for the explanation and your solution is brilliant!
How thrilling that you found that quilt! I love seeing these quilts together, in one post. I have spent the past 2-3 weeks doing pieced pieces (a first for me). I've become re-acquainted with my 42-year old sewing machine as I simply didn't have time for all the hand stitching that I love so dearly. One piece is a queen-sized quilt, and I've been wondering about the quilt-as-you-go method - wondering if it was a way to do blocks then stitch the blocks together or if it's a way to do the actual quilting of the 3 layers of my queen sized quilt. Without knowing I was asking the question, I think you've answered, though having never done a full-size quilt like this before and being unwilling to imagine wrestling the bulk in and out of the tiny space afforded by my beloved machine, I continue to wonder about the possibility of quilting the 3 layers together by hand, one hoop full at a time.
I think of trying this technique from time to time. But I am concerned about the bulk of the seams as well.
Thank you for the explanations. I had to read them three times (it is not easy to follow these technical instructions in a foreign language without pictures...) and finally understood them :) Maybe the third option would be my favorite. I would love to try it.
Thanks, Judy.
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