Time to Start Stripping Again

I'm back at my West Coast Studio trying to conjure up a little motivation. Here is my Strips on Stripes just waiting to be put together........

Time to start stripping again!

Dresden Gone Urban/Lily's Quilts QAL

Here is my finished quilt...... Dresden Gone Urban..... for Lily's Quilts QAL. I managed to take a few quick shots outside yesterday morning at 5:30 am before I headed out to the airport. For a little more info check out my guest post over at  Lily's Quilts   

Quilt Back

Finished

I thought I could, I thought I could and I did........ only to realize it's to dark to take any really good pictures now, and I'm leaving on a really early flight in the morning....off to the west coast and all my projects waiting there. If I get up really really early, I might just get a few good shots in, before I go.....then  again, not really a morning person.

An additional note: the missing chunk of grey fabric turned up the moment I added the black borders....what did I tell you.......I knew I had more of the much need grey (a number of meters more). I'm not crazy after all.  I think it was a happy accident, I'm quite happy with the dark borders and sashing.

Famous Last Words....I'll Just QUICKLY Finish this Quilt

Have you ever said.......I'll just quickly finish this quilt.  As far as I'm concerned that's just asking for trouble.  As soon as those words, come out of my mouth, things start to go wrong. Last Thursday, that was my plan, to quickly finish joining the squares for my quilt, for Lily's Quilts QAL......well, I didn't have quite as much grey fabric as I thought I did....the minute I finish I'm sure the huge piece, of missing fabric, will mysteriously surface out of nowhere.

I also decided the quilt needed some borders to balance the sashing....more grey fabric was needed. What did I do....changed direction of course. Here you see me adding some borders, using the QAYG method (notice they are not grey).

As you can see, the squares are almost joined...but all that time, fooling around with more fabric and adding borders made quick work of my supposedly quick finish.

Quilt Back

So close.....so tomorrow I plan to quickly add the last two borders and the binding....whoops I said it again.

When it's all finished I'll give you the goods, on how this quilt came about, on Lynne's blog at Lily's Quilts 

Fresh Sewing Day

Another month has passed and once again it's Fresh Sewing Day over at  Lily's Quilts . You'll want to check it out and see what we've all been working on this month.

 For me It was My twelve Day QAYG Log Cabin Quilt

Deja Vu Wednesday

I was definitely having  a deja vu moment, as I tip toed down to my studio this afternoon. Toddler asleep....puppy asleep and I'm down here doing some nap time quilting. Wednesday is the day, I babysit my fifteen month old granddaughter and her new sheltie puppy. It brings back the days when I was home with my four little ones...nap times were sacred and often used for a little something creative.....

Look at what I accomplished........ I finally finished quilting all the squares for Lily's Quilts QAL. 

Here are the backs. Now I just have to join them all together.

Tutorial/QAYG #6/ Adding Borders

Adding borders to a quilt, using one of the QAYG methods is nothing new.  I first saw this method about twenty years ago, on the sewing video,  Creative Strip Quilting by Nancy Zieman. When you see the simplicity of this method, you might be asking yourself.....WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS???.

I made this center  in March using the "Stitch 'n Flip" QAYG method shown here.

Here is the back.....some of it was quilted before the back was added and some after.  By doing it this way, some of the starts and stops that are characteristic of the "Stitch 'n Flip" method are hidden, under the backing. My sample is approximately 27" x 23" in size. It's important to remember to square up your center block. As with all the other QAYG tutorials I have put together I like to use a walking foot on my machine.

At this point, I am wanting to ADD SOME BORDERS, using the QAYG METHOD. Cut the fabrics, for the borders you want to add to your quilt, about 2" longer, than the edge you are adding to. For my quilt, I have cut a 6" wide strip, of each of the following:

• Fabric for the front of the quilt (black fabric)
• Fabric for the back of the quilt (white striped fabric)
• batting (warm and natural)

Lay the fabric for the front of the quilt (black fabric), on top of the right side, of the quilt, along the edge, right sides together.

Next, lay the fabric for the back of the quilt (white striped fabric), on top of the back of the quilt, along the same edge, right sides together.

Be careful not to stretch your fabric....I like to use a fair number of pins for this step. Sew all the layers together using a generous 1/4 inch seam allowance

In the original instructions, the batting was added during this step.....DOING IT THAT WAY results in THREE LAYERS OF BATTING  in the SEAMS. That's just far to much bulk for me. In the original video, polyester fiberfill was used for batting and the bulk was not near as noticeable, as it is, for the Warm and Natural batting that I love to use. I DO NOT add the batting until this step is completed.

Here we see the three layers sewn together with a generous 1/4 inch seam allowance:

• black strip (right side of quilt)
• quilt that border is being added to
• white striped strip (back of quilt)

NOW IS THE TIME TO ADD THE BATTING. Just butt the edge of the batting strip, to the edge that you have just sewn, using a wide zig zag stitch.

You are stitching, in the seam allowance, so nothing will show on the front or the back of the quilt.

Quilt Front.....detail of the zig zag stitching. 

Quilt Back

Now just flip the fabric strips, toward the batting, on the front and the back of the quilt and press. There is now only one layer of batting in the join.

Quilt Back

At this point, I put some basting spray between the layers to keep them from shifting, during quilting.

The next step is to quilt the border as desired. The major advantage is that you are always quilting at the edge of the quilt. No more wrangling a huge quilt, under the arm of your sewing machine.

Quilt Back

Once the border is quilted, I square up the border and start the process over again for the next  border.  

Every method has pros and cons and this one is no different.

Pros:

• You are always quilting at the edge of the quilt, which gives you so much more control.
• You are joining as you go along...nothing to put together later
• You are quilting as you go along...nothing to quilt later
• You can make a quilt larger after it is already quilted by just adding a few borders
• You can make individual QAYG blocks larger this way as well
• All machine sewing
• No strips to sew on later to hide seams

Cons:

• As the quilt grows, the borders have a tendency to be a bit wavy, if you aren't careful.
• I would only recommend this for lap size quilts or smaller.