My Quilt-As-You-Go Process - A tutorial (of sorts)...

Aka to make one of these....

Firstly an apology - sorry to those people I promised this tute to weeks ago!
-  What can I say... I've been busy sewing & enjoying a lovely Christmas & the holidays...
Ok when you put it like that I'm not that sorry at all....
All I can say is better late than never right ;) LOL

I first came across QAYG blocks and the technique over at Rita's Red Pepper Quilts blog very shortly after I'd started sewing. Being new to sewing, and recognising that while I'd LOVE to do a big quilt, I really couldn't see me ever having the courage to do it, couple with the fact that I loved the scrappy look of the blocks she was making, I thought this idea was genius! She had made them using a tute over it at Penny from Sewtakeahike's blog.
So naturally I clicked over to have a nosey, as you do, and low and behold but Penny was having a quilt along. Cue me making this quilt here using Penny's technique exactly....

You can read all about it here... and here...

A technique which I totally love and that I've used over and over and over for SOOOO many different projects (e.g. my scrappy pouch tute you can see down the right hand side).

But after making an entire queen sized quilt using that technique, I knew from experience that it takes a LONG time.
And a LOT of stamina.
(And a LOT of thread)
Since I didn't have a lot of the first 2 requirements and I already go through about 1000m of thread per week at times, I made an executive decision and do it slightly diffferently this time.

- I decided to instead make the entire block first and then quilt them to the wadding after the block was already made.
{Ok, lets be honest - I decided to invite my bloggy friends to make the blocks for me so that I could totally tap into my ultimate laziness reserves. But lets not get too technical heheheh....}
Then I also figured that I could quilt it in any which way I liked.

You could use this method to quilt any kind of block, it doesn't have to be a log cabin block, it just so happens that I really like log cabins and decided to make another one but this time just using colour.
{Tutorial here if you're interested in making scrappy log cabins too}

So here is the method which I use to Quilt as you Go (QAYG). It has pros and cons like any other method, but in my (humble) opinion I think the pro's far outweigh the cons and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will go on to use it time and again. Because it is manageable!

In which case here we go, let's get started!:

Step 1: Make your quilt blocks...
As already stated, you can make pretty much any block design and size block you like to do QAYG. So off you go and make enough of whichever blocks are floating your boat right now ;)

Log cabins do work out to be convenient though, because it's best that you make your blocks slightly bigger than you require for your final size and trim them down after they are quilted. So log cabins are easy to do this to without spending much time fluffing about measuring...
- I wanted my final blocks to measure 15 inches cut, so I just made made sure that each block measured very comfortably over 15 inches. You don't want to be too scrimpy because you will potentially lose some size when you quilt. So it is really best to make them bigger.

K, made all your blocks? Lets move on...

Step 2: Time to baste your blocks...
Once you have all your blocks made, or the first batch or whatever, then it's time to baste them to your wadding of choice. I spray basted them to make the process even more  lazy  quick, but I guess you could also pin them. In fact I didn't even baste the last 5 and that seamed to work ok too, but shhhh don't tell anyone I said so ;).

It's pretty easy to spray baste if you've never done it before (as long as you don't mind the smell) - take a bunch of quilt batting outside to a surface you don't mind spraying on & follow the manufacturers directions for your spray baste. You don't need that much...

I laid a bunch out upside down on a huge piece of batting, sprayed them all and then flipped them over one by one, leaving a border of batting of at least an inch around each block...

Yes I have a child slave. She's very well looked after though :)

** Note;
In other tutorials I have read they recommend using a lightweight quilters muslin as a back to your blocks when you are quilting them. I guess this just makes it a lot tidier for your machine so that the batting fluff doesn't mess it up.
But since I'm a) cheap and b) lazy I didn't bother with putting a backing on the blocks for either of my QAYG quilts while I was quilting them and instead just opted for quilting with just the top block & the batting underneath it.
But just be warned that if you decide to also forgo this step (like me) then it will make your machine more fluffy & require cleaning slightly more regularly.
It's really not that big a deal though - I just made sure I gave my machine a little brush out every time I changed the bobbin and then every 3-4 changes I took my bobbin holder out (top loading) and cleaned it a bit more thoroughly.
You would need to oil it at this point too if your machine is one that requires oiling.


Once your blocks are all basted (& the back is on if you are using the muslin option), then you roughly cut around the blocks leaving the batting at least 1 inch bigger than your block.
No need to be neat when you are trimming because as stated we will trim them down soon! Just hack it up baby ;)

Step 3: Quilting your blocks...
Now we should have a nice stack of piles to quilt, you can get busy quilting...
You can quilt your blocks any which way you desire at this point whether that be straight line or free motion.
I choose to quilt mine using straight lines - half the blocks I quilted the lines going vertically & half I quilted horizontally so that I could lay them out like a checker board when putting it all together and it wouldn't matter that none of my lines matched up. Smart huh ;)

I did not measure or mark my lines, and I did not do them evenly spaced. This IS after all a scrappy quilt that I was making right?! So I just lined my presser foot up and used the edge for a guide (but their was quite a large gap between the side of the presser foot & the fabric edge. Then I used that line as a guide and just placed the lines at random intervals and so on... too easy. My lines probably varied from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches apart.
I know that probably gives some of you shivers down your spine at the thought of potentially "wonky" lines, but I'm going more with the term "organic" and it really suited the style of the quilt I was making.

Close up of my quilting:

See how the block at the bottom (green strip) has vertical lines & the dog block has horizontal. And that's what I mean by they are not evenly spaced... I just did what suited each block/fabric print.

Sorry I didn't take any photos of the actual quilting part, because I thought you could do your own thing.
- If you want to see my lazy fast turn style of qayg quilting (as in I do one line, lift my needle, spin the block & go back down in the opposite direction) then you can see it in more detail in the beginning of this post here. (Although just remember we're doing the entire block at once this time, not one piece at a time - but the turn part of the quilting is the same)

Quilting done? Yeah!
Time to cut them down to size...

Step 4: Trimming...

Lay your ruler over your block in place you think works best.
Cut it down to size (in my case 15 inches)...

Done. Too easy.

Now, I was cutting mine down to 15 inches using a 15 inch ruler, so it was pretty easy to figure out just by turning my mat and leaving the ruler in place. But you can easily do the same without a square ruler, you'll just have to use the guides on your mat...

Stand back and admire your tidy looking block :)

Step 5: Making your layout & preparing them to join together...

Find a spot on the floor big enough lay your blocks out in your desired layout.

Once you are sure you have them laid out where you want them, take a bunch of pins, a pen and a bunch of small paper. You will need as many pieces of paper as you have rows.

Number your pieces of paper 1 to whatever (as in whatever number is the total number of rows you've made - in my case 7) and pin them to the far left blocks, starting at the top and working down, number each block.

Now we need to collect them up into piles...

Start at the bottom (although it doesn't really matter) and place the far left block that you have numbered on top of the one to it's right.


Then pick up both of those blocks and place them on top of the 3rd block in that row...
Pick up all 3 of those blocks and place them on the fourth...
etc...
etc...
until you have them all in a nice neat pile with the row number on top.

Do the same for each row until you have (whatever amount of) all your piles stacked up nicely with their numbers on top.

Step 6: Joining the blocks into rows...

My numbered piles all ready to be sewn together

Take your first two blocks. Lay them right sides together and join them together on the right hand side of the first block (so that when you open them back out again they are in the correct order) with a 1/2 inch (or bigger) seam.
{You want to make the seam a little more generous than the usual 1/4 inch just to give it more strength.}

Add the 3rd block to the right hand side of the second blockand so on and so on until you have your row completely sewn together.

This is why it is important to work left to right, because the bulk of your blocks is always to the left and you don't end up having to squeeze them all through the arm of your machine. Magic!

Once you have finished piecing your rows throw them all on the floor Gently fold them up and place them nicely on the floor or hang them over the back of a chair ;) and start on the next row, until you have all 7 rows pieced together...

Heheh this picture is taken after I've already ironed them actually - up until then the chuck them on the floor bit - that's me - but shhhh don't tell ;)

... You need to prepare them next for sewing together by ironing the seams open...

Now usually I'm a "press-to-the-sider" (sheer laziness because it's faster), but this is definitely a time when you want to press the seams open! As pictured...

**  Note: I've found that irons & batting don't traditionally like each other much in my experience - even my 100% cotton batting tends to get a little "grippy" with my iron, so you might want to do a little test first before you power away here and wreck your iron. Especially if you're not using natural fibres!

My way to overcome this is to fill my iron up as full as I can with water & press the steam jet button continuously as I go, moving rapidly but blasting those babies with steam to set the seam open... I find that method works for me.
Otherwise you could try oven proof paper? I just don't like that option as much because it just adds more fiddlyness and I couldn't see what I was doing.
Your call... Just be aware of the potential "sticking" problems that's all.

Step 7: Joining the rows together to make the top...

First let me say here that I'm not a 'pinner'. So if you are then insert your own pinning option here as necessary ;)

Take either rows 1 & 2 or rows 6 & 7 and place them on top of each other right sides together. Line up the edged and also line up the seams of the first blocks so that they nest nicely on top of each other.
Sew them together using a 1/2 inch seam again.
I find that if I hold my first seam together with my right hand, then use my left to guide, then my seams match up nicely. I just stop just after each one and nest the next seams together, now holding those ones and so on (if that makes any sense...)

nesting my seams...

Once you have sewn those two together then add the next row to those 2 and so on until you've sewn half of your rows together.
Then work on sewing the other half together.
Once you have sewn all of those half then you can sew those two halves together to finish your entire top.
{Just makes it less heavy that way!}

Righto, go have fun with your steam jets again and steam the other seams all open.
So it should look roughly like this...

ooops spot the mistake in my quilting? Two blocks next to each other with vertical lines... tut tut tut Kat.
I left it there. - Life goes on...

{just do me a favour and try not to burn yourself with all the steam - it might take some of the pleasure out of the finish ;) )

Step 8: Basting....

This is where you throw everything you've ever learnt about basting a quilt out the window...
- The whole taping the back to the floor and laying the batting then the top down on it rigmarole that is.
Yep the basting of this quilt could not be more straight forward, but we are going to break the norm and pin from the back.
Really - not a typo... - we really truly pin from the back.

So lay your quilt top down on the floor right side down, with all your seams at the top.

You shouldn't need to tape it or anything, it has enough weight & we are only pinning together 2 layers and that one finds itself hard to wrinkle, so no worries there.
Place your quilt back over the top, right side up (so you should have wrong sides together).

Because we are only stitching in the ditch around the blocks this is why you can pin from the back; because if we are careful about where we place our pins then we don't have to remove any of them as we quilt, but it's easier to smooth out the back really nice (since the front is already smooth and quilted ;) )

I pin about 3 inches in from each corner. So that's 4 pins per 15 inch block...
Starting in the middle place a pin in each corner (but not too close to where you can feel the seams) taking care to smooth out the back really smooth as you go.

Continue to that to each block, smoothing the back as smooth as you can by pushing all the wrinkles out to the edges.

Mine looks a little more wrinkled than it should simply because I've had two "helpers" dancing all over it!
But it's tight, trust me.

Step 9: Stitching in the ditch...

Now we want to secure our two layers together by stitching in the ditch around the blocks. So start in one of the middle ditches and sew down the ditch all the way from top to bottom.

(Really missing big Brother right about now since Miss Pfaff has a smaller arm on her! But we got there and she did well! :))

Do the next ditch along, and the next one etc... until you're at the edge (I don't go down the outside edge though because it's more work don'tcha know and the binding will see to that anyway... ;) )

Then turn your quilt around and starting in the middle do all the ditches on the other side.

Once you've finished all the ditches vertically (or horizontally) then turn your quilt and do the opposite ditches.
You should end up with nice big squares on the back like this...

I bet at this point, if you are making a huge quilt like I did, that you will be extremely pleased you only have to quilt a few of these lines because you did QAYG!! LOL...

Once you've done all the ditches the back will look like this:

Hopefully these are enough - it's a bit hard to capture the back...

So as you can see the back is very plain compared to the front. Which I know some see as not idea. But for me it's perfect as a bed quilt because it's so much more smooth against my skin and I sleep better. And really, how often do you look at the back?

Step 10: Securing the middle of each block...

Traditionally when people make these, they also secure the middle of the block in some fashion.
I've seen that some people tie the middle. - I have no experience in that sorry so you'll have to do your own research there... :)

For my first one I decided to free motion a little heart in the centre(ish) (in other words wherever it best fit each block) to anchor it in the middle. That worked fine...

Can kind of see one of my free-motion hearts in the middle there...

However for my cheeky quilt I haven't yet done anything to anchor the middle. Because at the time I assembled it my main sewing machine was in the shop being fixed and I wasn't confident enough to do free motion on my back up machine. But you know what - I actually find it fine without that little anchor. So far I don't know if I'm going to add anything.

So see how you go, you might decide you don't need to either.

Step 11: Bind as you normally would...

Here is where it reverts back to "normal" if you would, and you can go ahead and bind in whatever fashion you'd normally do.
For me that was raiding my scrap bin for any strips of 2.5inches wide and making a scrappy binding. Except I made WAY too much because I was too lazy to do the math. (But as it happened I had the perfect amount left over to bind this quilt, so all was not lost).

I'll put a tute up of how I do my machine binding soon (next time I bind something and remember to take photos as I go no doubt ;)) for those that have asked me for it.

Step 12: Stand back and admire the fact that you made a huge big quilt and quilted it all by yourself...

Go you!!

Frequently asked questions:

Won't the seams feel bulky doing it this way?
Well if you compare it to a traditional quilt, then yes, they do slightly. If you run your hand down your seam then you will notice a slight raise, but I find that you really do have to go looking for them. I bet unless I told you that my two quilts were QAYG then you wouldn't pick it from just looking at the top (obviously if you saw the plain back you'd be like - hey, what the?).
But I imagine it would also depend on the wadding/batting you use. Mine is not particularly high loft. Nor low. Probably medium loft 100% cotton batting. So I'd just recommend that you didn't use a really high loft one...

Does the back feel really loose & gape?
You can pull the layers apart from each other if you try to, especially if you don't anchor the middle like I didn't in my second. But otherwise I have found that they still have just as nice a drape and I don't even notice it. It will also depend on what sized blocks you do as well, mine are pretty massive!

If you think that this will potentially bother you though then you could always add another line of stitching down the middle of each block in each direction so that you have smaller quilted squares. I'm sure that will eliminate much of that potential gape yet still be reasonably easy to finish on your domestic machine while maintaining a densely quilted front.

Will it fall apart more easily?
Well I guess again part of that will depend on your construction & the quality of your materials used ;). By using a 1/2 inch seam to sew the blocks together I have not found any problems whatsoever.
I used the first quilt I made on my bed for an entire year, with regular washing since most of that time we didn't use a top sheet due to hot weather. And it has held up perfectly fine from a block aspect.
{Although I must admit that a couple of the seams on the blocks on my first quilt have come away from each other over time - but that will be more to do with my wonky sewing because I was just learning at the time and probably couldn't sew a straight seam ;) - That could happen with any type of quilt! LOL}

Hmm... that's all I can remember for now, but I'll update this with any that you ask after this post :)

I hope you enjoy!
As always if you try this technique I'd love to see and admire your project!! :)

Take care