Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

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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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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

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Lori’s Modern Log Cabin

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This is a quilt after my own heart! The combination of modern fabrics and styling with the traditional Log Cabin block, brought together with quilt-as-you-go techniques, in colors that just sing!

Lori sent this to me a while ago and I somehow misplaced it as I was preparing for my drive down the AlCan in September.

Take a good look at the pic – can you see the different quilting she did on each block? Check out the heart in the lower left, the pink square. This is just fantastic!! I actually didn’t think it would be possible to use quilt-as-you-go on a Log Cabin and Lori proved that it can be done, and stunningly at that! Thank you Lori 🙂

Here’s her note

Hi Marguerita,

I bought your book, “How to Finish Almost Any Quilt” and just finshed a crib sized quilt using your instructions. I’ll be donating it to my local “Bags of Love” chapter.

I love to recycle things and and the quilt is about 50% recycled cloth. (In this quilt, I used mostly recycled medical “scrubs”)

Attached is a pic.

Can’t wait to start the next quilt!

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Kim’s Quilt and Custom Table

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Kim sent me a pic of her very first quilt-as-you-go quilt, and her custom sewing table! What a great way to start the new year – a really happy email from a comfortable quilter!

She sent this note:

I just wanted to share my very first ‘quilt as you go’ quilt. I could have never made this Queen Size without your technique! I purchased your book about a year ago and just never had the nerve to try it. This quilt is for a close set of friends. The husband asked me to make it as a surprise for his wife for Christmas. I panicked when he picked out that pattern! The pattern was for a full size and their bed is a queen. And the pattern had an error with a cutting measurement. And I purchased every bit of the blue on the bolt- and had only a tiny scrap left! So it was a little rough start 🙁 But, now I’m glad he picked that one out. I will definitely feel more comfortable next time knowing that I can use your wonderful technique!

And, please keep the You Tube videos coming- I love my table! My mother helped me sew a slip cover for it. And the thread video was amazing! A design wall is next!

Thank you again-
Sincerely, Kim

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Marilyn’s Finished Quilt

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Oh, I’m in LOVE!

Marilyn (from the UK) sent me this photo of her quilt and the message below:

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Dear Marguerita,

I bought your book Crazy Shortcut Quilts some time ago, and I love it. I have made several quilts using the ideas in it. I now also have your other books Quilt as you go (Reimagined) and Finish almost any quilt (the day before yesterday was my birthday!), and can’t wait to get going.

However, about two years ago after learning your techniques for quilt as you go, I made the quilt in the attached photo. I used a basic block pattern that I saw in a magazine, and adapted the sashing to your methods. I am pleased with it, and recently I posted a photo on a Ravelry forum, and several people there said how much they liked it. As you will see, it is simple, but I think simple quilts can be the most effective sometimes. I hope that you like it.

I found the pattern in a magazine I bought some time ago, called Quilt Mania (no 60). As far as I can judge the magazine is French, although the version I have is in English. All it says about the design I based my quilt on is that it is called “Aussie”, comes straight from Australia, and is a Patchwork Studio design. Their version is not “quilt as you go” of course, I adapted that bit as I said before.

I have no idea where I bought the magazine – sorry! and it is quite old, I think 2007.

Marilyn

First of all, I love the big squares of fabric – it really lets the fabric be the center focus of the quilt (green – my favorite colour!). Second, I love, love, love the dropped shadow effect that the black fabric makes. Most of all, I love that Marilyn figured out how to adapt a pattern she liked to make it quilt-as-you-go. THAT is what the book Finish (almost) Any Quilt is about. You can read more about the book here – or buy it on Amazon here.

Hurray Marilyn and thank you for sharing your gorgeous quilt!!

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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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.

Cats



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