Best ideas don't always work

[peg j.]

I decided I wanted to do the "quilt as you go" method for this. The quilting went wonderful. It was very enjoyable without a lot of bunched up fabric getting in my way. I was able to do the blocks using quid quilting and the borders worked out nicely. It was when I started joining the quilt that I ran into problems. I found it went faster if I did it strip piece - first mistake. I was all done joining when I realized that my "x" and "O" were not in the proper order. I made a decision that it didn't really have to be perfect with the "X" and "O" alternating. It still looked good. So I continued. Then, a second mistake. I discovered that some of the leaves and circles got truncated by the seam covering fabric. Although I left the seam allowance in, the covering strip still was larger than the half=inch combined seam allowance. It's not a prize winner, but it's okay and I will finish it.

[Margo C.]

I love that quilted cable Jan! Thanks for sharing!

[karen f.]

That looks really wonderful Jan.

[Betty J.]

Jan, It's really beautiful.

[Deborah W.]

I think your quilt is beautiful and I wouldn't have noticed the problems if you hadn't pointed them out.

[Deborah W.]

They are not problems, they are a design statement :lol: However you look at your quilt it is beee-yooo-ti-ful! (and it's done!)

[Jill B.]

Jan it's great and I too would not have noticed the "design statements" either, and for me I was a bit scared to do all that applique work so in the end you are the winner for trying something out and giving yourself a learning curve with the quilt as you go method and me the loser for not thinking to try doing it this way also.........so congratulations on a wonderful quilt and try to look at it with fresh eyes and see past what you are not happy with, once its bound I also think that will finish it off and will make a big difference too. 8) 8) 8)

[Robin G.]

Jan, your quilt is lovely! I actually think it's rather nice that the Xs and Os are more random -- it gives the quilt interest. I really appreciate your sharing your problems with the quilt as you go method -- that's how I'm planning to do mine too. I know there are a bunch of different quilt as you go methods. Which did you use? Would you use it again?

[Maureen A.]

My grandsons and I play tic tac toe all the time and this design would be just great to remember the lunches and dinners we played it waiting for the food to arrive. They are now 16 and 20 so I do not get to be with them as much so this quilt will be a wonderful memory. I am finishing the last block on the 2008 one then will start this one. Great idea.

[Maureen A.]

Your quilt is really beautiful! :P

[Maureen A.]

Jan, your quilt is lovely! I actually think it's rather nice that the Xs and Os are more random -- it gives the quilt interest. I really appreciate your sharing your problems with the quilt as you go method -- that's how I'm planning to do mine too. I know there are a bunch of different quilt as you go methods. Which did you use? Would you use it again?

Thank you. I'm still working on the ten-inch scrolls borders now. My quilt as you go method to finish it, is to first quilt the border strips. I then cut 1 3/4-inch strips from both the backing fabric and the front background fabric. I pressed the backing strip in half, then sewed (1/4-inch) this strip to the edge of the back quilted piece. Working from the back side, I put the raw edges of of border strip and the quilt together. I safety pin the edges together to secure (regular large pins pull apart) then do a long,wide zig-zag stitch(4.5 wide, 3 long) to hold in place. I fold the backing strip over the secured edges, pin, and do a small zig-zag stitch(1.5 wide, 2.5 long). On the front, I put the front background strip (not pressed) along the straight stitched line (made by the backing strip) and stitch 1/4 inch from edge. Fold edge over to cover the zig-zag stitch made on the back and pin. Zig-zag with a narrow, rather long stitch (1 wide, 5 long.

Hope this helps. I would use this method again - depending on the quilt. It will make the quilt slightly larger as the quarter-inch seams are included in the finished quilt. If design pieces are too close to the edge, they will get cut off by the covering strips - as they did with mine. I wish it could be done in all quilts as the quilting process itself is so much easier and fun to do. Hope this helps.

[Robin G.]

Thanks, Jan. I appreciate your taking the time to write it all down! I'll have to think about this and compare with other methods I've been reading about. I'm not close to doing one right now, but I'll come back to this when I do. Best wishes, Robin

[Terry K.]

The 2009 BOM at the LQS was a quilt as you project. The process I used is different than the process that Jan used. I blogged about the process here:
community/my-profile/quilting00

Here are photos of the project:
community/my-profile/quilting00

I was happy with the result and would do another quilt as you go project. I think that any method you can use to help you finish a quilt is a great one!

[Anne B.]

I've been working on an on-point design that uses trapunto in every block. I thought seriously about doing quilt-as-you-go, but worried that the setting triangles would become quite distorted, between the stress of the trapunto, the wool batting I'm using, and the extra handling involved in putting the whole thing together. So I chickened out and am sewing all the blocks together before I do any quilting.

But I'm wondering . . . do any of you have experience with trapuntoed quilt-as-you-go on-point blocks? Did the finished quilt lay flat? Did you have problems, and if so, how did you solve them?