This fall I was so fortunate to get to enjoy some time in the display of quilts in the
International Quilt festival. And I found myself drawn to several quilts that were strip
quilts or quilt as you go quilts. And I had to create one to teach you how to do it. Let’s
get started.
Quilt as you go’s are just that: quilt as you go. So you’re going to need a couple
of things. Let’s start with what will be the quilt top. These are Timeless Treasures.
It was a 2 ½ inch strip pack but I specifically chose from my 40 piece collection with all
40 fabrics different. Because we’re going to take those 2 ½ inch strips and we’re
going to cut them down so that they’re 1 ¼ by the 44 as we begin working. Before I
teach you how to do that you’ll also probably need a good rotary cutter ruler today. And
I want you to have your backing and your batting ready to go before we even start cutting these
down. So with your backing and your batting you’re going to figure out how many strips
you’re going to use. If you’re making 1 ¼ inch strips multiply that number of strips
by .75 and that will be the number of inches you need to make your backing and your batting
and then add four inches in length to that anyways so you’ll have a little bit of wiggly
room.
So I have enough batting and enough backing here to do the whole distance of the quilt,
the size behind me. But I’ve also folded it in half very crisp. And I’ve drawn this
black line you see through here. And that black line is going to be my first seam allowance
and it’s drawn on the batting not on the backing, ok? So now that that’s all established
let’s talk about how we’re going to organize our color strips for building the quilt and
like I said we’re just going to quilt as we go. Now when I looked through the stash
I was drawn to it because there were 40 different pieces. But I was also drawn to it because
I loved the bright colors in here. So as I figured and looked through and realized how
big I want this I was able to omit actually about six strips so I chose the blacks, grays
and darker browns because they didn’t fill into that bright family. See how that just
changes the design just like that. Set these aside. You’ll use them for the binding as
you can see on the quilt there behind me. Now once you do that I want to also stack
these up in a color gradient. And I’m going to work from light to dark, primarily just
as they come off the order. And just use these as you go. So like I’m going to take my
light cream and then the next darker. And as I stack these about five at a time, I’m
going to stack them perfectly so that I can cut them when I’m done. Ok, so then the
next would be the lighter of the purple shades, ok? And let’s just do four strips. Four
strips is pretty easy to cut. It’s still eight layers. Build all of your strips in
color order first. Then come back in here and prepare to cut down your strip, ok?
Now you want these as accurate as possible. We’re using this cut edge as our seam allowance.
So just take a second, look down your strips, make sure they’re nice and clean. And then
I’m going to set my ruler on an edge. And I’m looking at the one and a quarter inch
mark. 1 ¼ inch mark out here so I’m going to cut and leave a 1 ¼ inch strip as well.
A little bit of pressure and away we go. Oops, slide a little bit. That’s ok. And I want
to be careful not to come off the end of the mat. That is a very good way to dull your
blades is to come off of your mat. So if you ever get into a situation like I am, grab
it, grab it like this. I’m in the selvedges so it doesn’t matter. But I don’t ever
want to cut off of my mat. That’s a good example to teach you there. Ok now I’ve
got my pieces all set up. And again do it to your entire pile. But I’m going to set
these out of the way so I can show you how to sew it. And then we are starting on our
middle strip. Whatever color you want for your middle strip that’s the one we’re
going to have. Now we have technically two of every color. So we’re going also to omit
one more piece of fabric, gone it is, ok. And now we have one of our very lightest and
that will get sandwiched in between those two next lightest. That’s a terrible term
but you know what I mean.
Now in order to make it work and facilitate for our sewing, clean out my area a little
bit. Move these over here. And now I’m going to lay this out flat. This is my batting and
my backing again. And I think I forgot to mention I did safety pin baste lightly the
batting to the backing. Ok. Like this. Now I’m going to take the straight edge from
my first lightest strip. And I”m laying it here along that black line, ok? Then I’m
going to take one of those next shaded strips. Also set it so I have my clean cut straight
line right through there. And ladies and gentlemen I’m going to do something you probably have
never seen me ever do on Man Sewing before. That’s right I’m going to use a few pins
today because it’s such a big piece I don’t want things to move around. I’m just going
to slide a pin or two in place while I get myself over to the sewing machine. Once I’m
at the sewing machine, the black line and the straight edges will be my guide. I don’t
need the pins to keep it all secure but I want it just to make sure I can get there
nicely, ok?
Now as we head over to the machine, leave this last strip out. I’m going to show you
how to put that one on here in a second too. Now I’m doing a quarter inch seam allowance
but I can’t use one of my edge guides like I normally do because the edge guide will
be hidden on the bed. And we’re now sewing in the middle of the field, ok? If you have
a walking foot for your machine this might be a good time to use that. If you have a
dual feed on your machine this would be a great time to use that. Keeping all these
layers sewing with your feed dogs nicely. Now I’m just taking a second to breathe,
ahh! Slow down. And we’re going to just line all of this up where I can see my presser
foot width which happens to be about a quarter inch. That black line. My machine is in a
needle down mode and we’re going to get started here. So now as I’m coming I’m
just watching that black line and those two straight lines. And another reminder is I
never want to sew over the pins so I’m taking the pins out now. And you might notice I’m
also kind of just keeping the weight or all of the fabric and the batting up on the table
here as I go through.
Ok now as I’m coming into the end here I’m just going to finish that off. You can backstitch
if you like. We will trim our edges clean when we’re all finished, ok? Now we’re
going to go over to the ironing board. And I was thinking as I was sitting there sewing,
Gosh I wonder if it really matters if you use 100% cotton batting. I always have because
I am going to be ironing on the top where the batting is exposed to the heat of the
iron. I’m not too concerned but I certainly wouldn’t be using fusible batting at this
point. So just a quick little reminder. Now my fabrics were set right sides together.
So I’m just going to come down the center here and press this open as I’m going. I
don’t mean my seams, I’m sorry I mean the two fabrics I just created. You can’t
press your seams open this way because you are quilting as you go. And that quilting
as you go term really means just that. I have stitched now through the layers of fabric
and the batting and the backing. So when I’m all done if you look at the quilt closely
behind me you’ll see there’s no additional machine quilting whatsoever. Not that you
couldn’t add it but I just didn’t need to because everything was already all structured
as I was finished which makes a wonderfully easy and great project. Now back to our design,
ok.
Our center strip is our bright strip so the next one I wanted to lay in here is this cream
colored strip. Truthfully you can add in either direction. For me I like to build like when
I’m machine quilting from the center outward. So I’m going to sew on this next strip as
well as I go. So I have to check. I’ve got a few basting pins that may get in the way.
I’ve already secured the fabric by stitching it so I can now remove this center row of
basting pins and continue to add on a row after a row after a row. I’m going to show
you how to get started on this but I want to talk a little bit more about the quilt
in the background. So I’m just going to get your started here. So on this one I like
to match up my pinked edges. So I’m going to go right sides together so I’ve got to
spin it around. So I’m now right sides together here. And I’m going to go right over here
to my machine. Sometimes it helps to get a little bit of the extra fabric out of the
way. Slide it in because it’s most comfortable, most convenient like that. Bring it back up
here to the top. And now like I said I can just use a nicely pressed piece of fabric
to start with right here. Did you catch what I just did? I bet you did. Now technically
I know my foot is a quarter of an inch on either side but that’s not how you would
do it at home is it? Sorry about that. We’re just going to spin it because I was going
to sew on the wrong side of my presser foot and a lot of us have a cool quarter of an
inch foot but it’s only a quarter of an inch on the right hand side of the foot. So
if you were wondering if I was noticing that. No, I didn’t notice that. But I did when
I got ready to start sewing. Ok here we go again.
So I’ve got my pinked edge lined up to the pinked edge. I’m going to do my standard
quarter of an inch as I know right there. And get started. And then as I continue to
sew through here like I said, I just do this as business as usual. But there’s something
that I want to point out in the quilt. You’re handling a lot of mass while you’re doing
that. So about every six or seven strips what I would do is I would come and I would measure
how it was going. So I would start in the center. And I’m going to flip my ruler up
so I can kind of use it. So like let’s say we just take from this blue to this blue strip.
And I can see that it’s six inches right there in the center. But then I’m going
to come out to the edge and I’m going to measure again. And I’m praying and crossing
my fingers that it’s also six inches. But it isn’t always. I’ll tell you it wasn’t
for me. And I same on the other edge. What I found is about every seven or eight strips
I might get off by a half of an inch or a quarter of an inch across the whole body of
it. I do not want you to try and cheat and fix it in one strip. Take a couple strips,
figure out where you’re running a little bit wider and narrow it in. And it works beautifully
because as you look at it the quilt behind me they look like they’re running perfectly
parallel. But now you know my secret, right? There’s a few that weren’t perfect but
that’s ok because as my dear friend Jenny Doan says, Finished is always better than
perfect. And there is no faster way to make a quilt than quilting as you go.
So I hope you certainly enjoyed this tutorial today. I had a blast making it. Before I let
you go though I’m going to remind you don’t forget to put those binding strips around
the edge. And we’ll catch you next time right here at Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan. It’s great to have you out there encouraging me
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