Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Finish Any 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.

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

Bonnie’s Sawtooth Star Quilt with Quilted Borders

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I recently received the nicest note from Bonnie about a quilt she adapted to quilt-as-you-go, using methods that worked best for her. That’s my very favorite kind of story! Thank you Bonnie for sharing your quilt and your tips!

Dear Marguerita and Sarah,

Here is a photo of the sawtooth star block quilt I made for our grandson.

I used the method as described in your book Crazy Shortcut Quilts however I attached the sashing so that I could hand sew at the back . Thank you so much for the chapter 6 from your new book about quilted borders. I quilted the borders with wavy lines using my walking foot and then joined them to the quilt.

I was having some difficulty with sewing on the back sashing as described on page 105. Then I noticed that you were using a different Bernina foot (not the walking foot), so I changed to my 34D foot. A lot narrower than the walking foot and so much easier.

Thanks again for your help.

Kind regards.
Bonnie Jenkins
Salisbury, South Australia

Robbie's Quilt by Bonnie Jenkins

Robbie’s Quilt by Bonnie Jenkins

Teresa Rush’s Finished Quilt

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Not only did she finish her quilt (here’s more about finishing any quilt), and beautifully, she sent the most gorgeous pictures too! Here’s Teresa’s story:

I hope the new year is finding you happy and healthy. I thought you might enjoy seeing what your book, “Finish (Almost) Any Quilt” has recently inspired. I have been playing around with free motion quilting and the techniques you so skillfully describe makes it possible to do on a my cherished 30 year old Bernina 930.

I sent a close up the free motion quilting I did on this border. It was the most intricate quilting I did.

The blocks in the middle was my first attempt at foundation paper piecing. Definitely helped with the scrap busting. LOL

Again thank you writing a book that is so easy to follow and allows me to make the quilts I want without having to wait until I can afford to pay someone else to quilt it on their long arm.

Teresa

Teresa's Gorgeous Quilt

Teresa’s Gorgeous Quilt

She added two quilted borders using QAYG.

She added two quilted borders using QAYG.

Teresa's Gorgeous Blocks

Teresa’s Gorgeous Blocks

Teresa's perfect machine quilting!

Teresa’s perfect machine quilting!

June Copeck’s Table & Quilt

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June asked me a common question about my Sewing and Quilting Table adaptations and when I replied, she sent me pics of her table and her quilt (check out those gorgeous batiks!), along with her story:

Thanks so much for your information. This is what I did. My sons cut a hole in my sewing cabinet and
it will work for both my sewing machines. I thought about spending over $100 for a plexiglass cover
to fit the sewing machine. but I thought of you and you plastic idea, so this is what I came up with.
I cut it a little short on the right side but it works really well and I love it. Cost $5.99.

Below are a couple of pictures of cabinet and my quilt as you go quilt using Batiks. Just need to put
the binding on. I choose to not do a border since it is a lap throw.

Sewing-Machine-Table

June Copeck's Quilt-As-You Go Quilt

June Copeck’s Quilt-As-You Go Quilt

Thank you June for sharing your table and your gorgeous quilt!

Jean Knapp’s Quilts

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Jean texted me (to my email) months ago with pics of her quilts and notes about them and I have to admit that I know so little about phones and texting that I had no idea how to open any of her texts until today. Seriously.

Here’s her message and pics – finally!

Hi, first I am going to send a pic of a quilt I made for granddaughter. Did this without a pattern. Everything that could go wrong did. I made the sashing/front binding strips 2.5″ by mistake. But I left them and I think it worked out ok. I just had an extra line of stitching on the back. But since I used shrine backing it doesn’t show. It will be used a lot so after washing you probably won’t notice.

Back. Ran out of fabric, improvised.

Next I am going to make this hockey quilt. It is 68 x 88. Grandson plays. No way will I ever be able to quilt it. So what if I made the quilt before making the quilt sandwitch I cut it in 3 sections. Quilt it and then put it back together with your method. Any thoughts? I won’t start it for about a month. I am in to hurry. As long as it gets done by October. Man, when I leave Florida for 2 months in Ohio my car will be full of quilts. Now I am doing all the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff. 4 kids and 8 grandkids – lol. Thanks for any input. If you put my pics on your blog. It’s ok.

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Here’s the back of her quilt and I love how she improvised!








Below is Jean’s “Hockey Quilt” from a pattern by Kristie Marlow.
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Maria’s Penguin Quilt Story

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Check out this super fun quilt and the story behind it, which is well worth the read. By the end you’ll know Maria, her daughter and her quilting goals in addition to the saga of the Penguins Quilt.

Penguins

Our friendship started with an email – Maria had questions about the joining process. She bought our quilting e-books on her Nook and she needed just a bit of encouragement to clarify the quilted block joining process. I sent a few tips, but I replied about 24 hours after receiving her email because I’ve been traveling so much and not always able to reply right away. By the time she received my message she had already figured everything out!! A day later (one day!) she emailed again to say she was taking her new knowledge to a treasured project. Here’s her story:

Hiya Marguerita!

Girl I have watched every last one of your videos and love them all! I’m anxious to see what you and your daughter come out with next. I’ve also read all three books that I purchased on my Nook. Below are photos (yes I would be flattered if you posted my photos! ) of my daughter, Alexa’s (who is now 21 yrs old LOL!) applique penguin quilt.

When I finished it last night I asked her if she still wanted it and her reply was “Mom! I’ve waited years for this quilt! No one is getting it!”. I had to laugh! Like I told you in earlier emails, this quilt has been waiting to be finished for 11 years?!

Appliqueing the penguins gave me no problems when I first started this quilt. But after that it was nothing but a disaster in the making! I had originally put white sashing around the blocks and added 3 borders BUT when I went to sandwich it I found not only was the sashing wonky but so were all of my borders and it was extremely heavy. There was NO way to get this top smooth enough for me to even try to quilt it. Soooo it ended up in my UFO cabinet hidden for many years.

Every once in awhile Alexa would ask me when I would finish her quilt. I found excuse after excuse because I had NO clue as to how I would finish it. Then 3-4 days ago for some reason I went to YouTube and was just watching random quilting videos and that’s when I came across your QAYG videos. Let me tell you, I was blown away! I couldn’t get enough and after watching all of them I came up to my quilting room and cut the penguin applique blocks out of their sashing, cut backing and batting…spray basted them and had all 12 quilted within an hour and a half!

I did get stuck on how to add the sashing like you do but again like I told you I made a scrap block and had that major AHA moment!! From there I got busy and cut my strips and even cut border fabric, sandwiched the border fabric, quilted those and added them to the quilt.

There’s one thing I did different and you may or may not have tried this but it sure cut down on time and saved me from stressing too much (it was a FACE PALM moment! LOL). While adding the long strips of fabric to the rows of blocks (the back 1 1/4″ x width strips) to the first set of blocks I had a little trouble making sure it stayed straight. While putting the first strip on the wheels in my head started turning again and I remembered I had a bottle of temporary basting glue that came with a metal adapter and a very small hole. So after finding it, I decided to try it on my 2nd row of blocks and it saved me not only time but worry!! Once I had basted the back strip with the glue, mainly all I had to worry about was making sure the front 2″ strip was straight. I didn’t glue the top strip down but pinned just to make sure neither piece moved while I sewed them down.

There is no way I can Thank you enough for sharing your wonderful videos and books that have allowed me to complete a quilt that I thought would literally rot in my UFO cabinet!

My next project is going to be a king size quilt for myself and my husband using layer cakes and I can’t wait to get started because I plan to use decorative stitches which is something else I’ve never done and your QAYG technique to get it finished!! This was also my first time to sew a binding to the back of a quilt and machine sew it down to the front. Can I say I am in LOVE again? I do know that at all cost…I will probably never make a quilt the “traditional” way again.

We will be grandparents in August so you can imagine the baby quilts I will be making from now on lol! One last thing I’d like to share with you is in the 15 years that I’ve been quilting, I have never used my walking foot. For some reason it scared the life out of me. But now, I’m happy to say I do believe it’s become my favorite foot to use! There’s only two things that I will invest in very soon and that’s a 16 1/2″ square ruler and a 20 1/2″ square ruler or I may just invest in the 20 1/2″ square… do you prefer both? or would just the 20 1/2″ suffice? Ok I will quit rattling on for now! Again thank you thank you THANK YOU!

Sincerely and always a follower of your videos and books…. a fellow quilter and a friend!!

Maria

P.S. A couple of my favorite sayings: 1. I’m not perfect so don’t look to close and hard at my stitching. The imperfections in each quilt is what makes them unique in themselves! 2. If it can’t be made using QAYG then I probably won’t make it! 3. Love who you’re with, what you are doing and mainly life’s too short to stress over a wonky stitch! LOL
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Quilters, receiving Maria’s email was so rewarding! I was thinking the other day “I can’t believe people read the books I write” and now to know that what I’ve written has made such a big difference for Maria and her daughter that I’m just speechless, and endlessly grateful for her kindness in sharing the story of her quilt.

The quilt pattern that Maria adapted is called “Penguin Paradise” and is by Amy Bradley.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has sent me their quilting questions, stories and photos!
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Quilt Question from Carol Crites

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I received a question from Carol and have tried everything I know to get back in touch with her, but emails bounce and Google searches are just not helping, so I’m posting both her question and my reply here in the hopes that she’ll see it. If you have any ideas on her quilt dilemma please chime in!

Carol's-Top

I just finished your quilt as you go re- imagined, LOVED IT!!! This top is one of three similar quilts I’ve been working on. Obviously, I’m nearly done with this one, have you got a suggestion for converting the other two? This top is a variation of one called Any Which Way developed by Vicki Thomas in To Stitch A Child’s Quilt. She used a single set of arrows, I’ve used a bi- directional set of arrows. It was a challenge adjusting the amount of fabric I needed. I feel like I should finish these before I moved on to the next so the boys can get some use out of them. My next project is a king size square patch that I think lends itself nicely to your method. My husband has no imagination, he wants just red, blue and neon green squares joined with black joining strips, all solid colors. As I understand your method, you quilt the blocks and then use the joining strips to butt the quilted blocks together, using the strips to make the edges pretty. I would welcome your advice on the quilts for the boys. They range in age from 9 to 7, and the oldest is trying to be more mature than other boys his age. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks in advance for your advice and wisdom. Carol Crites.

Here’s my reply: Hi Carol,

Thanks for your note and your quilt pic. I’ve been thinking about it and the best that I can think of is to unstitch it into 3 or 4 rows and add white fabric to the long sides of those rows, so that you won’t lose your arrow points when you join the quilted rows. Layer and quilt the rows with the added fabric and then trim them to about 1″ wider than the points. Join with white fabric. Your arrows won’t touch like they do in the top, but it will be much easier to quilt. The quilt process would be a lot like the Aloha Strips in the book, which is a row quilt. You should only have to add about 2-3 inches of fabric onto each row edge to allow for the quilting and joining. I’d love to see your other quilt projects to see what the blocks look like.

Let me know what you think, okay?

Marguerita

Keeping Up With Kim W

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Well, the truth is, I just can’t keep up with Kim! She’s made two more queen sized quilts and I’m just about speechless.

About a year ago I received an email from Kim telling me about her first queen sized quilt (quilt-as-you-go) and her own special ergonomic sewing table. I just treasure messages like that, especially when the author takes the time to photograph their creations and attach the photos so that I can see them. I consider it a wonderful gift from a new friend.

So when I recently received another email from Kim, I thought “Oh, how nice, a new pic of a little quilt!” No, four pics of TWO *large* quilts!! How does she do it?

Here’s Kim’s first quilt and her custom sewing table. Below are her newest creations and her note:

I just completed my second & third ‘quilt as you go’ queen size quilts!
I just wanted to thank you again for your technique!
Sincerely , Kim from NC

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Teresa’s Road To Oklahoma Quilt

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I was lucky enough to meet Teresa Rush at the Pahrump, Nevada quilt show in March this year. She follows my travels on this blog and on Facebook, and she saw me post that I’d be in Pahrump, so she drove 60+ miles to come to the quilt show and say “hi”! That just made my day! 🙂 I’m looking forward to returning to Pahrump in March 2015 and I’m going to try to meet up with Teresa again – either in Las Vegas or Pahrump.

Here’s her note and her quilt pics – Thank you Teresa for coming all the way to Pahrump and for sending me pics to share, especially for the close up on your quilting. Just like the quilts in my book Finish (almost) Any Quilt you can’t even tell that this is a quilt-as-you-go quilt!

I just wanted to share my first quilt with you. I am so pleased and know it would had never been possible without your book and personal demo at Parhump. Thank you!

I would love it if you let me know when you come back to Vegas! I have enclosed some more pics of my quilt and please feel free to use any of them…

Quilt block is Road to Oklahoma. (Curtains are my next project now that the quilt is done.) Quilting was done on my embroidery machine and even though it is a queen size quilt it was no problem using your quilt as you go technique.

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