(Day 29 of a 31 Day Series)
STOP!! Don’t run in the other direction. You’ll want to read this post, trust me.
I’ve given you lots of ideas for quilting designs that can be quilted with your walking foot during this “31 days” series. As I mentioned before, using a walking foot does not eliminate the hassle of wrestling your quilt top into that itty bitty space to the right of your machine’s needle. Some of you may have heard of a “quilt as you go” (QAYG) method and for some it will be a novel idea. Basically the method involves quilting up your quilt blocks one at a time (or smallish sections of your quilt) and then joining the quilted sections together to form the quilt. Most quilt blocks are in the 12”-16” range so this is very manageable in even the tiniest sewing machines.
Until a few weeks ago I was really only aware of two ways to do this. Both involve leaving a narrow un-quilted area around your blocks, then joining the blocks together, and a generous amount of hand sewing on the back of the quilt. I always found the method confusing and, since I really dislike hand sewing, cumbersome. Check out this really great tutorial that explains both method’s very well at The Quilter’s Cache. (Make sure you read all 3 pages.)
To be honest I have NEVER done QAYG. The hand sewing always deterred me. My world changed dramatically when Maureen posted a fantabulous tutorial of her version of QAYG. Seriously you HAVE to go check it out. It is revolutionary – well ok it really is simple and my jaw dropped and I couldn’t help but think “duh!” Did I mention there is NO HAND SEWING!! *insert hallelujah chorus*
Ok enough already – get over to Maureen’s lovely blog, bookmark her, follow her, but don’t stalk her! Tell her you love her, she’s a genius, and tell her we are so lucky she joined the quilting world (she’s only been quilting a short while) – oh and tell her I sent ya!
Will you look at that gorgeous straight line quilting!
I really want to know if you have done QAYG, what you liked and didn’t like about it. What do you think about Maureen’s method?
~ Norma
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