Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Marguerita

Simply Charming Quilt From Janice

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I just received the pic below from Janice, and then I went digging for any emails we have shared. They go back to 2012! We started talking about the batting requirements in the Kindle version of our first book Crazy Shortcut Quilts. Then we moved onto how we each make homemade starch, and then the sizing for Simply Charming from our book Quilt As You Go {reimagined}. Janice wanted to make the quilt in a queen size and wanted help with the fabric calculations. Here’s her quilt, isn’t it gorgeous!

Simply Charming Quilt

WillieMae’s Quilting Table Story

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My favorite kind of email!

Good morning,

I want to thank you for your video and sharing with us how you made your table. I decided to make me one. I use a Pfaff machine and the machine sits on it’s own platform which sits on the table. After making the extended table it still needed some support, so I used short spool of thread/with or without the thread as legs.

Well, here is my little creation. I didn’t get the kind of foam you got. I did see something I think was like what you have but, it was so big and tall and I’m not 5 feet so it would have been not easy for me to handle, even though they said they would cut it. So what I got was a package of 6 sheets 14 1/2 wide.about 48 long and 3/4 in wide.I cut 3 layers and glued them together. Then I put the plastic on and had to tape some of it down. I’m a little disappointed that the fabric does not slide across the table like I thought it would. However I’m still new at this. All in all I like my table and I’m sure I’ll get better as time goes on.

Thanks, WillieMae

I love that WillieMae adapted what I did to meet her needs, using what was best for her. That’s the whole idea, to open your mind to see materials and resources in a way that solves your problem!

Gina’s New Quilting Table

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I love stories about solving a problem based on my ideas and Gina sent me her wonderful creation and some super pics!

Just thought I’d drop you a line and show you my very recent new sewing room I feel blessed to have. We recently moved from a 1 bedroom condo to a 2 bed room house, this room was formerly a TV room which I confiscated. As you can see I found plenty of things to put in it. The home belonged to my in-laws who recently moved to assisted living. One of the pics shows a Needle Book, from long ago I thought was so appropriate for the room that my mother in law had kept along with the thread box, and a very old toy spinning wheel.

Enough background…lol…anyway, I found the table at Walmart at for about 35.00. It works perfectly and is about 4 inches shorter than I was using previously(the white table behind my chair in the corner). The coffee table in front of the machine I use in so many ways and lifts so I can use it as a cutting table or for ironing quilt backings. I recently created the design/basting wall but haven’t tried it out on a quilt yet. My main reason for it was to keep off the floor on my knees but not sure how well I will do on chair either for larger quilts. Anyway, I hope this finds you well and thank you so much for sharing your time to create these videos, I use my table at the 24″ setting which is perfect and has saved me so much pain in my shoulders and neck the other table was 29″ and is being used for other sewing needs.

It is my little room of happiness, everything melts away when I’m in there, my kitty even sits in my rocker after several scoldings about being on the quilt I’m working on at that time.

I have neck issues and was told by my neurosurgeon that after looking down for years and years doing whatever it is I’ve been doing it has taken a toll on my body. I had wanted to get a table a long time ago but didn’t since I didn’t really have the room to set up anyway, so when we moved I remembered seeing your video previously and finally did it! Anyway thanks again for all your devotion to helping others feel better!! Have a great day!!!

Gina!!

Sarah’s Quilt

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Sarah Henderson sent me the story about her quilt and a couple of pics and I LOVE it!

Here’s her story:

I wanted to share a picture of my completed Crazy quilt.
Thanks so much for your inspiration, I loved every moment of creating this. I had so.much fun with this. What a great introduction to crazy quilting. I don’t want to do anything else now.
ps Thanks again for your inspiration!

Nancy’s Quilt

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Nancy just sent me a photo of her finished quilt! Here’s what she wrote:

Hi Marguerita,
A few months back you helped me when I was in a panic over having made my blocks too large. After much thinking, figuring and praying, I took a deep breath and did some trimming. Everything turned out to my liking.

We are in AK right now and have given this to our grandson for graduation from Colony High School in Palmer.

Your books were a tremendous help and I followed the directions so carefully. I added arrows to the tags to further clarify whether the block was a center or side, top or bottom edge block.

Thank you.
Nancy Ballantyne
Gilbertsville, PA

Here are Nancy’s blocks before adding the borders to each block. She had these blocks left over from another project and wanted to make them into a quilt. She was working from my book Finish (almost) Any Quilt with Quilt As You Go. I think she made an outstanding, unique quilt!

Beautiful Maple Leaf Quilt

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Bonnie Jenkins has sent me photos before of her quilts and here’s her newest and its story:







































My husband and I visited the east coast of Canada last September, just in time to see the beautiful autumn leaves. I really loved the colours of the maple leaves. When we returned home I bought a copy of your book ‘Finish (almost) any quilt’ and was inspired to make a maple leaf quilt using your method. I found a maple leaf block on line and made the blocks but I didn’t put them on point as in your book.

I am so happy that it turned out so well and that I was able to complete it by myself. It is a gift for my brother Bill and his wife Dianne. Thank you so much for your help and the great tutorials on YouTube

You can read more about finishing almost any quilt with quilt-as-you-go here.

Nouli’s Table in Athens, Greece!

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Quilters, I am always left speechless when I see how far my videos reach. I’ve received questions and comments from quilters in Australia, South America, the Middle East, and now Athens, Greece about my videos. I now have over 2 million views to my videos, and this one video has over 200,000. Unbelievable.

Take a look here at Nouli’s great blog post about building her table. She’s got great photos of the steps she took to create her custom sewing table and then gorgeous pics of her quilt.

For quilters all over the globe, it’s a small, wonderful, helpful world.

If you have never seen it, here’s my video:

Tracey’s Custom Quilting Table

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Tracey send me pics of her new quilting table, along with her story and a pic of her quilt 🙂 Quilters, I can’t tell you how much a difference it makes to have a flat surface to sew and quilt on, especially for machine quilting. Be sure to check out my page on COMFORT for more info. Meanwhile, enjoy Tracey’s pics!




I am new at quilting..about 3 years now. I have tried to machine quilt a little with a brother I bought from Costco and the little pfaff passport 2.0. With this new flat surface and 10″ throat sewing machine I am hoping it won’t be such a tug of war!

Enclosed will be my first quilt project on my new machine. I hope to start quilting this weekend because I have the back finished. I will let u know how it goes. So far I have tried westerlee rulers and the flat surface for ruler work made it much easier to learn!

Thank you for all your great ideas and for sharing your knowledge and connecting with us and helping us succeed as quilters!

Best to you!
Tracey Towner

Janet’s T-Shirt Quilt

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I received the nicest email from Janet about her t-shirt quilt:






































I was re-reading your T-shirt Quilt as you go book and decided I should send you my first t-shirt quilt. I retired in March 2016 and promised my boss I would make her a t-Shirt quilt. Well I started it in October 2015 and finished it sometime in November! And gave it to Dr. Freeman at the Christmas party. I really enjoyed quilting the squares and then figuring out how to sew them all together was very well explained. I learned a lot on that first t-shirt quilt. First I will never mushy Batty! And the Stabilizer I got I don’t think I will ever get again. The hardest part of this was getting those squares to not be a mess after quilting. I had to redo each one after quilting. Getting those squares to smooth out was really hard. I was really happy with that I almost had everyone about the same size. My husband helped me with the sewing machine as I have not used a sewing machine for quilting – always did it by hand. He really tried to make sure I learned how to use this sewing machine which he purchased years ago to make stuff for his sailboat.

Everything you put in this book was so great. I did have to re-read things over and over but once I had done it once or twice, I could do it for all of the squares. I did a bad thing and that was I decided to not wash everything except the t-shirts. I told my boss to not wash the quilt. We shall see if she does. She said she would wash in cold water!! My fault. I just did not wash the material. I will do that for the next one which I will start making either in March or November. I do lots of RV trips in the RV and not sure I will take the squares with me to quilt. We shall see.

Just wanted to thank you for writing this book.

Janet L. Vincent

Thank you Janet! In my world a finished quilt is a beautiful quilt and I’m sure the Dr. loves and cherishes it!

Joanne D & Me

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Joanne D and I have been emailing for a while, and I have to tell you that I— number one, admire everyone who can ask for help and —number two, love anyone who can laugh at their own mistakes. These are two qualities I value deeply, so she and I are hitting it off quite well.

When she signed up for my newsletter she mentioned that she needed help understanding the block joining process. I know that, no matter how many times I write it (in books) or how many times I teach it in classes, not everyone is going to say “aha!” the minute they read it. It’s confusing and what’s worse, it’s frustrating when your’re confused. I felt her pain.

I sent all my best tips and she took a deep breath – and she got it!

Then she sent me her pics and I notes and I just had to smile. She told me about her “oopsie” and I told her about mine (and I have plenty).

Here’s Joanne’s quilt, and I thank her deeply for sharing it and her quilting adventure with me. You won’t see any mistakes on the top, her tiny oops is on the back. I wish I could say the same for my quilts 🙂

Joanne DeS's Quilt

Joanne DeS’s Quilt