Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Quilt As You Go

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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Her First Quilt

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My friend Rena taught her friends how to make a Crazy Shortcut Quilt. Here’s the note she sent me:

I showed it to a couple of ladies at work & they tried it too! Better news- neither one of them had ever quilted!!!!
Here is her creation. She is Russian and never did anything like this before. She loved it! She plans to make more! I’m thinking about getting her the Quilt As You Go {reimagined} to help encourage her. Thanks for teaching this in Valdez!

Isn’t it just lovely? Thanks, Rena, for teaching her and for sharing her success with me.

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A Happy Quilt and Happy Quilter!

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What better way to start the new year than with a huge smile! Rena took a class with me and oh, did we have some laughs. She decided, like so many quilters who use our techniques, to add her own spin to her quilt. She chose to use Minke brand fabric, which is a super soft polyester fabric that is just perfect for baby blankets. Unfortunately the very softness that makes it so delightful to hold also makes it a nightmare to cut straight, especially if you’re trying to cut multiple layers, as our techniques call for.

Rena was up to the challenge though, with a great attitude and staunch determination to succeed. She did, just beautifully! Here’s her note to me and photo of her quilt. I hope you enjoy both just as much as I did. My next blog post, in about a week, will have a pic of the quilt her protege made. Thank you Rena!

You will remember me, I tried to do the quilt in all minky…
Well, I finished.
My first mistake was to use all minky, my second was to keep working on it instead of throwing it in the scrap pile. It looks great from a distance, but don’t get too close. Trying again.
Good news! I showed it to a couple of ladies at work & they tried it too! Better news- neither one of them had ever quilted!!!!
I’ll send a picture in the next email.

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Eileen’s Crazy Shortcut Quilt

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I love opening up my email file and finding a message like this, from Eileen. What a gorgeous quilt and a kind heart to share her quilt with me!

Dear Marguerita,

I have been working on my son’s quilt for some time. I finally finished today and thought I would send you a copy of the photo of it.

It is for his birthday. He has Irish heritage hence the greens on the front. He is a journalist and loves music, which explains the checkerboard pattern in the back.

Thank you for writing the Book. I have thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt for my son.

Kindest regards,
Eileen K

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Jean’s Modern Quilt-As-You-Go

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Jean sent me a pic of her quilt, made from our book Quilt As You Go {reimagined} and I just LOVE it! The quilt is made from 9 fat quarters, cut along the length of the FQ and the quilted blocks are joined with the same fabrics as the top, making the joining strips nearly invisible.

It’s taken me a while to get her photo posted but oh, boy, was it worth the wait. From the day that I received her pic I’ve been excited because hers is the first photo I’ve received of anyone else’s quilt made using that pattern. Jean did a beautiful job on her quilt and she took the process one step further, doing something I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet done, and made her binding from scraps of the top fabrics – it looks AWESOME!! Jean added this note with her pics “Did this one from strips The back is done with yellow flannel because it will go to chemo patients.” What a kindness to give quilts to those going through a frightening time of their lives. Thank you so very much Jean.

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Pat’s Simply Charming Quilt

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Pat Minich is a professional quilt designer and purse designer and she helped me with the text of one of my books and then gave me the treat of sharing a photo of her beautiful finished quilt! Called Simply Charming, from our book Quilt As You Go {reimagined} this quilt is made from just two fabrics, one framing center squares of the other. The joining strips are hidden in the framing fabric. I am deeply grateful to Pat for helping me with the text of the book and for our fun conversations. I’m really looking forward to seeing her next quilt! Here’s Pat and a portion of her quilt, and below the whole quilt. It really is simply charming 🙂

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Sarah’s Quilty Bit

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When I teach my quilt classes, and write a new quilt-as-you-go book, I start with a little helper that I call a “Quilty Bit”. I make them from several 5″ squares of fabric and batting. I make two “crazy cuts” similar to those in our book Crazy Shortcut Quilts, and then layer those squares with batting and backing, and quilt them with decorative stitches and pretty rayon threads. Then I join two squares, leaving out only the last seam, so that my students can see how the squares are joined. In my books I suggest making one of these Quilty Bits if a reader feels unsure of how to do the joining and wants to have a small sample to play with before starting a big quilt.

My friend Sarah (Sadie_J on YouTube) sent me pics of her “Quilty Bit” and I wanted to share them with you. The purples are her squares and the center pink strip is the joining strip of fabric. Doesn’t the gold thread look gorgeous against her fabrics? Thank you Sarah!

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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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Ricki’s Finished Quilts

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Check out these cuties by Ricki Cohn! Here’s the note she so generously sent, along with pics of her quilts:

Just finished my 6th quilt using your quilt as you go method, along with other quilt as you go techniques, including making a reversible quilt. Thanks! You were the inspiration for getting me started on this relatively new hobby.

Here are some of my latest endeavors:

Owl quilt
I quilted the squares first with wavy lines, then learned how to applique using freezer paper and starch for the pieces of the owls. The back does have the outline of the owl and wings, but I used Sulky thread in the color of the backing, and it looks fine.

My 2-sided quilt…

Below is a baby quilt for my niece’s baby. I added the yellow borders that I quilted first to the 4 squares that were extras from a larger crazy quilt that ended up too big for a crib. The yellow and brown quilts are the back and front of the same quilt!

Ricki

Owls

Yellow

Brown

CSQ