Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Marguerita

Nina’s Custom Sewing Table

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Nina sent me her adaptation of my “Cheap Custom Sewing Table” along with this note:

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I recently saw your fantastic video on making your own sewing table. I was all set to do as you suggest, the sturdy insulation, etc., when I hit upon another idea.

My son had a set of Enclycopedia Brittannica many moons ago and they were just on a shelf collecting dust. I worked out that stacking them in twos was just the right height for my Bernina.

Who knew??!

I then found some old travel books that work perfectly in front of the machine….. very easy to pull out when changing a bobbin.

So I followed the rest of your tutorial and bought clear vinyl, I believe it is 7mm thick, very sturdy, and
I have my sewing table! I am so thrilled with it.

Thank you so much for your tutorial. It is much better figuring out a workable table rather than wishing for a Koala table that is way$$$$ up there.

If you haven’t seen it, I made myself a custom sewing table for about $100. I did this about six years ago, and I even made a series of videos about it. You can watch them by clicking here.

The benefits of having a table like this is the large, flat surface that holds your quilt, yet lets it glide like melted butter. No more struggling as it falls off the edge of your sewing machine bed or small table surface. Every quilter I know who has tried this has raved about it and about how much easier it is to handle their quilt for free motion quilting.

The fun thing is, I take it to quilt shows and it stops people in their tracks:

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Pam’s Finished Quilt!

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Quilt Teacher Linda Patzer, of The Sewing Studio in Normal, Illinois, taught a Finish (almost) Any Quilt class a few months ago and she just sent me this pic of her student Pam’s quilt, along with this note from Pam

“Hi Linda
I finished my quilt on Tuesday evening and showed it to the Knot a Stitch Quilt group this AM.
Thank you for teaching this fun technique. I am looking forward to taking your Christmas tree skirt class.
Pam”

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Whooooo Hooooooooooo! Pam, and teacher Linda, get a BIG GOLD STAR for being finishers!! Linda is still teaching the class and if you are anywhere in the Normal/Bloomington area of Illinois, be sure to stop in The Sewing Studio and check out the store and her classes!

A New Quilt From Cyndi in Texas

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Cyndi sent me her quilt photos with these notes – aren’t they both gorgeous!

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Using the book Shortcuts Crazy Quilts I made this quilt for my mother in law for her birthday.



A year ago she sent me this note along with the photos below. Her color choices are just beautiful and I really like her cut designs in both quilts. Thank you Cyndi for sharing your quilts with me!







This is my first try at making a crazy quilt. I love this technique. I made this for my son for christmas last year. He loved it. I’m currently working on one for my mother in law. I have made several and everyone loves them.

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Quilt As You Go in Alaska

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Hi Quilters, I’m freezing my toes off in Anchorage, planning some quilting classes and events for the summer – from Anchorage to Valdez, and maybe even Cordova! If you’ve quilted with Sarah or I in the past, and would like to see the new quilts in person or take an updated techniques class, drop me a note at MMQuilts @ gmail.com (remove spaces) or leave a comment to this post and I’ll get back to you.

I don’t have specific dates/places yet, but I’m looking at trunk shows, demos, classes and retreats, in Anchorage in June; Valdez in August; July and September are open to your suggestions.

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Lori’s Quilt for Her Sister

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I posted Lori’s sister’s video in this post, but I wanted to show you pics of the quilt too! Here’s the story Lori sent me

I just wanted to drop a quick note to include some photos of the quilt I just finished for my sister’s 40th birthday using your quilt as you go method!. She loves tie dyed….so I got the idea to do it in a quilt. Took on a pretty huge bite…..don’t know what I was thinking…..no pattern, no real vision….just started cutting, then I started sewing!! In the end, I quilted each block with words that had meaning from her life and then put it all together in the nick of time! Her birthday is today. The first photo is the individual squares (or should say rectangles) laid out on the table. The second one is the finished product. Kinda proud of myself!! Thanks for being the voice on my computer that convinced me I could do it!!

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Meet Susan Wilcox Ingersoll

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We live at opposite ends of the North American continent. She’s from New Brunswick, Canada and she’s an organic soapmaker and entrepreneur.

We’ve emailed a few times, starting with this conversation about the decorative stitch quilting process:

I received Crazy Shortcut Quilts for Christmas and am enjoying the book greatly so far. I am working on my first quilt with this technique. At the first when you start to do the quilting and it tells you on page 93 to bring up the bobbin thread I understand and can do. What I am asking about is what do you do with the two threads afterwards. Do you have to know them together or do you just clip them off.

I love the technique very much and can see become addicted very quickly.

I replied to her that if I am using the decorative stitches, usually that will secure the threads enough that they don’t need to be knotted. Two cotton threads rarely need to be knotted, just clipped but, if I am using a rayon or slick polyester on top AND in the bobbin, I’ll check the line of stitching first (after all the quilting is done to the block) and see if they look like they are going to stay secure. Sometimes if I’ve used a simple stitch then I’ll knot the threads before clipping. I hope that makes sense. I just leave the long tails hanging while doing all the stitching because if you sew over the ends of one line of stitching with another line, that also secures the ends. After all the stitching on the blocks is done, then I go back and clip thread ends. I have a lot of videos on YouTube if you want to check some of them out – especially the one on using a “fat quarter inch seam” when joining/sashing your blocks together.

She also asked about using heavier than cotton fabrics, and we chatted about those options, with each of us deciding that a quilt made out of ANY fabric is better than no quilt at all. We are both frugal experimenters at heart. Then she told me about herself a little more

I live on a small island off of New Brunswick , only 2500 people live here, and no fabric store. So all my trips away to the mainland are usually used up taking family to doctor visits and not much time left to shop for fabric. I have lots of other interests as well as sewing, card making, jewelry making and soap making and stay at home mother, so when I get a hankering to sew I will use what I have on hand and lately that is not much.

We both love writing and quilting! Here are two of Susan’s quilts with her note

I would like to show you my first two quilts using your method. I love it!!!!!!! Thank you.

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Rosie’s Quilts

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Another quilt show!! I LOVE getting photos of finished quilts and Rosie sent me this message, along with pics of her quilts …

I’ve just looked at your web site and would like to say how much I’ve enjoyed your book. I’ve attached a couple of photos of quilts I’ve made. The pastel coloured one is a suduko themed pattern and the other was made for a cat lover – all the fabrics are cat themed.

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Lori’s Quilt

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Lori sent me this message and a short video!

My sister had her 40th birthday party on Saturday in Pennsylvania. I couldn’t be there, but her good friend shot the video for me. I did free hand quilting on each block, writing in meaningful words and images. (Names of childhood pets, favorite teachers, etc). I am including a clip that shows her reaction after looking over the quilt. I had no particular pattern or plan…other than your book telling me how to finish any quilt. I had to make peace with my imperfections (I am a brand new quilter) and remind myself not to stress. In the end, it was Forever a lesson for me…it was perfect….crooked seams, puckers and all!!

Quilting has come to my life at a perfect time for me and your videos gave me the courage to jump in! I have my sewing room set up with Costco tables, styrofoam insulation and vinyl sheets!! I love it!

Lori Z

Click to watch —-> QuiltGift


Alane’s Quilt Story

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Alane was working from my book “Finish (almost) Any Quilt” when she wrote to me. She was working on a quilt for her dad, sitting by his side in the hospital. Alane was hand piecing her blocks but she wanted to quilt them (and bring the quilt together) with a quilt-as-you-go method. She updated me recently with this note and pics of her quilt.

This quilt will always be special to me. I hand pieced it while sitting in the hospital with my dad, and the decorative stitches I used over my seams made me feel confident that my hand stitches would never rip out. I am still working on what to say on my label, but I’ll figure that out in time.

I did learn that you have great tips in the book, and if you don’t do it, you regret it….My quilt is not perfect by any means, I made a lot of errors when I didn’t follow your directions exactly.

I’ve started another quilt using dad’s dress shirts, and will attempt quilting again using your method. Thanks so much!

You might want to add that the entire quilt was free except for thread. Along with calling it my Ugly hospital quilt, I call it my “Green” quilt. I used scrap fabric, an old mis-shaped fleece blanket for the batting and and some old flat sheets for the backing.

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