Quilt as You Go with No Sashing Strips

For my April quilt guild meeting I was in charge of the "presentation,"  I decided to teach the ladies how to "quilt as you go," also known as QAYG.  There are many ways to do this, and tons of tutorials out there, but leary of infringing upon someone's copyright rights, I decided to make my own tutorials, since I was doing the step-by-step pictures anyway.  So <drum roll please>, without further ado, let's QAYG!

QAYG with No Sashing Strips

Basically, this is how I did (am doing) my Bottled Rainbow quilt, and so I used that quilt as my sample.  QAYG blocks are made into sandwiches, quilted, and then assembled into rows, and the rows into the quilt.  All that's left after that is the binding.  It so much easier to handle a single block through the sewing machine, or a row of blocks, as opposed to a monster quilt being shuffled through a small throat space in the sewing machine.

Here is the yellow block of my Bottle Rainbow that have been sandwiched and quilted.  The applique patches are sewed on through all 3 layers:  the white background, the batting, and the black dotted backing.   You could quilt feathers, or lines, or meanders.  Any pattern you like.   I chose to use the applique on this block as its quilting.  The block is ready to join to its row.

To join 2 blocks together, there are 3 basic steps::
1.  Attach the Tops.  (Machine sewed)
2.  Attach the Batting.  (Basted or  hand sewed.)
3.  Attach the Backing.  (Hand sewed.)
Each of these 3 layers is sewed separately.

The Tops

1.  Lay out your blocks, which have been quilted and trimmed to size including the 1/4" all around for seam allowances.  (Do not quilt your blocks all the way to the edge unless you want batting in the seam allowance which will cause extra bulk and a possible ridge.  You need at least your quarter inch seam allowances to be UN-QUILTED!)

2.  Beginning with row 1, flip the first block over the second, right sides together, raw edges aligned. Pin the backing and batting out of the way if necessary.  You will only be working with the front of both blocks at this stage.  Pin the raw edges and take to the sewing machine. Sew a quarter inch seam to the quilt TOP piece of both blocks.  Press the seam open.

  

Pin JUST the tops.                               Sew JUST the tops, 1/4"

The Batting

3.  Your batting will now be 1/4" too big on each side.  You need to cut off 1/4" inch on each side of the batting, otherwise the batting will overlap and cause a lumpy seam.  We want the batting to just meet in the center and butt up against each other.  Be sure to move the backing out of the way before you cut, and the quilt top too.  Cut ONLY the batting!  (You can do this step before sewing the two quilt tops together.  It's a little easier that way--a lesson learned as I progressed through the making of this quilt.  Some people just skip this step totally and sew the batting in with the seams.  I prefer to cut it off so as to not have a lot of bulk in the seams.)

Smooth the batting over seam, butting the edges together.  Baste or sew in place.

  

If you are going to be adding more quilting in the spaces between your seams, you can just baste the batting together.  If no more quilting will be added, you should sew the batting with smaller stitches to hold it in place.  I will be adding more quilting (on the borders of my blocks,) so I just used big basting stitches.

We have now attached 2 of the 3 layers.  We still need to join the backing flaps.

The Backing

5.  Lay one flap of the backing across the batting to the center.  Try to keep everything tight.  I pin this down to keep it from shifting.

On the other side, press a quarter inch under to finish the edge.  

  

Lay this ironed edge over the other backing piece--it should overlap by a quarter inch.  Pin in place.

Hand sew this seam closed using small stitches. It's very hard to see the seam in this picture,  and that's a good thing.  It's hard to see the seam, period.  It's a good idea to use a "busy" background to help hide your seams, especially if your hand-sewing is a little less than perfect, like mine!

Now that your backing flaps are joined, you can quilt this area if you want.  Continue adding blocks into the row in this same way.  Then join your rows using this method as well.  It's a lot of hand sewing, and if that's not your cut of tea, check out the next tutorial on QAYG with SASHING!  No hand sewing involved!