QAYG: Diving In, Quilted

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The quilting is done, and I did it in sections, mostly flip and sew, but then the last part I decided to try something different. I quilted it first but left the connecting edges unquilted, and then joined it to the rest of the quilt by sewing on the back connecting strip at the same time as I sewed the two sections together.

I know that is confusing, and I had to talk it through to myself several times before I actually did it. This shows the just front piece (no batting or backing)  sewn to the rest of the quilted top, and what you can't see is that the doubled strip is also being sewn on as I stitch it all together. It was very easy, and looked just perfect on the front.


Because the joining seam is on the front,  the back doubled strip has to cover the butting seams, I needed to trim away the excess backing and batting so it will be a smooth fit.
That was easily done too.
There are so many ways to quilt as you go, and I am adding this one to my technique list.

The quilt measures 50x80" which is big enough for a wall quilt (maybe too big for any remaining walls in our house) but a bit skimpy for a bed quilt or a nap quilt. I see borders happening before I finish this one completely.
But I might be taking a break from this one as I have a new small idea I have to try out. I'll post that one when it is finished.

QAYG: Diving In, Ready to Quilt

As a review, here is the original matrix, or first layer, and then a view with the sewn in strips, below.
At the moment it is in five panels, which will be quilted starting with the center panel. After it is quilted then the next two panels are attached on either side of the center, flip and sew-fashion,  and then the last two go onto those.  It currently measures about 53"x83", which will no doubt shrink down to 50x80". I may or may not add borders, depending on how it looks after it is quilted and assembled. I'll do my fave straight line quilting, following the strips, not at right angles. It ought to go together in a day, but it will have to wait, as I need batting. I have only queen size batts in my stash at the moment but I think a couple of 45x60" batts will make cutting soooooo much easier. I'll go to the store tomorrow morning before I meet my knitting friends for Sit and Knit at the Three Black Sheep Shoppe at 2pm.
I must say that the gradation of the inserted strips really makes the design sing. I am so happy with this top.

QAYG: Diving In

Here is what I am calling the matrix, a background pieced layer, which I am going to cut into strips and insert solids between.
I determined that the size wasn't going to end up wide enough, so I added about 10 inches more to the height. Doesn't that sound confusing? Well, the width will grow with the inserted strips, but the finished dimension will be the same from this top to this bottom if I didn't add more to it.
Having done this addition before cutting the matrix into strips meant that I also had to add more length to the inserted strips. It all becomes clear in the sewn sections below.
The verticals each have contrasting ends, sewn before inserting.
I mentioned varying the width of my insertions in the post from yesterday, but immediately changed my mind when I started sewing. There needed to be something constant, and I am certain the inserted strips were it.
I am about 1/3 of the way done with this section of the quilt, and I am piecing it in sections, and will quilt it by flip and sew. I'll show that again here, when it happens.

I have decided that my local quilt group and I are marching to different drummers. No surprise, but a bit of disappointment on my end. They were lovely to me, but their focus is on hand quilting 'pioneer style' quilts and sticking hard to tradition. Nothing happens at the meetings but hand quilting, from 9-12. No show and tell and no bright colors. Sigh. I wouldn't be able to bring them over to my side and they couldn't bring me over to theirs, so....nevermind.

Diving In

I dawdled and procrastinated, and finally started selecting, committing, cutting and sewing. My color scheme was based on a piece of my hand dyed Special Editions fabric, orange, yellow and green. Then I found a darker green S.E. and added that, along with solids in the various colors. Choosing, committing, cutting and sewing again, hopefully and intuitively.
I had a 43x41" piece when I quit. Uninspired. But I thought I could make another piece and find a way to incorporate that. Or not.
And then it occurred to me that I have all those color coordinated pre-cut strips! So I gathered the color palette and pinned them over the 'matrix' piece. Hmmm. Possibly interesting.
And then I switched orientation and thought O YEAH BABY. I likey!
If I cut the matrix piece in unequal strips, this could develop into something. I may also alter the width of the insertion strips too. Wouldn't want it to be too regular. With the extra width of the additional strips, the quilt will grow exponentially, and almost effortlessly. ha!

QAYG : Review with Samples

In hopes of making these techniques clear and understandable, I have some samples to show, which I just used in my two lecture demos. The first sample is using the Narrow Connector Strip. Using two quilted sections, sew a 1" strip (1/4" seams always) to the front of one section and at the same time, sew a folded over two inch strip to the back of the same section. All of them are raw edges aligned at the outside edge of the quilted section. Doing it makes it obvious.
This shows the back side with the folded connector strip sewn to the back. The second section is sewn to the front connector strip, with a 1/4" seam allowance.
The wider back connector strip will cover the butted seams made by the front connector strip.
 Fold the back strip over the seams, and topstitch from the back or pin carefully from the front and stitch in the ditch, catching the edge of the folded strip.

Here the finished look. If I had used solid fabric, it would have been nicer, but the striped strip makes it more understandable.

The two choices of covering the seam: folded strip on the front or folded strip on the back. Either one works, but one is more visible on the good side while being easier to stitch. It's up to you which to do.

 Wide Connector Strips: This is a pieced example which could be used to join large quilted sections, ala Sashing Strips. The Strip is sewn to one section, with a 1/4" seam, and at the same time, a folded backing strip is sewn. The Backing strip (doubled) should measure as wide as the front connector plus 1/2" seam allowance and 1/4"-1/2" more for overlap.



This shows the doubled connector strip on the back, and the batting is cut to fit in between the seams, and then zigzagged to one edge of the seam allowance. Fold over the back strip and topstitch, either from the back or the front.

 The simplest one of all is the Flip and Sew border technique. Join a top strip and a back strip (not folded!) at the same time. Then add batting strip, and zigzag butting it up against the seam allowance. Then quilt the strips.
Please feel free to leave any questions in the comment section.

Simply Stripes

I was all set to make a new quilt top today, deciding on a color scheme and choosing my fabric, when I decided to look through my favorites on Flickr for inspiration. While I was there, I reviewed some of my old work and found an unquilted top made in 2010 that I was saving for my 'heirs' to discover and quilt, Ha! Truth be told, I had made a bunch of tops in a fury of piecing and had no interest in quilting any of them at the time. But now...now that I have QAYG in my repertoire, I can joyfully attack a piece like this and git 'er'done.

In order not to have a big bulky piece under the needle I had to disassemble the top slightly into small segments, and while I was at it, I added some pieces to the width.  I broke it down into three sections, sandwiched and pinned them and began quilting. It was an all day affair, and I finished all but the binding by 5pm. 

      





Here's the quilted top and the unquilted top together so you can see the additions, or not. I know they are there and it's hard for me to see the new parts. Oops,  I flipped some of the sections upside down too, so nevermind...

 

Anyway, it measures 60x70" and I will bind it later. But the cool part is that even tho it wasn't designed as a QAYG I was able to use narrow connecting strips to join the three segments almost unnoticeably. Excuse me while I congratulate myself over this discovery.  

 

I am giving this to Dave as he has a birthday later this month. Of course it won't be a surprise, but he says he likes it, so that's a relief.

QAYG: Like Eating Potato Chips

 OK it is complete. Binding and all. I was only going to clear the scraps off my table, but they seemed to want to be sewn into groups and before you knew it, a long section was assembled and it became the added length the thing needed.
It now measures 51x77.5" Really a generous size for a nap quilt. There is nothing to this...I swear. No plan other than sticking to the chosen fabrics and remembering include them all, and then vavoom, it makes itself, almost. And making another one is like so enticing, like eating one more potato chip. I have the fabric and the time, so why not make another, and another. Straight line quilting makes it 'modern' and neat, and the back looks fabulous, which is always a treat. When I showed it today, everyone swooned over the back. O dear, since I spent NOT ONE MINUTE thinking about it. But then, that has always been my pet peeve. The art is on the FRONT for heaven's sake.



A typical shot of a back.

Here's a closeup of the quilting. I am sure it is close enough to keep one snuggly warm.

QAYG: Adding Height and Width

 I was very careful to plan where pieces would line up as I added a border to the top and the right side, and then completely forgot about those things as I assembled the parts.
Duh.
But still, it works.
Sometimes the piece has a mind of its own.
So far we have 51" wide by 67" long. Is that big enough for a nap quilt? It feels like it today, but then I haven't put the binding on, so things could continue to grow. It could easily become 60x72" by adding 9 inches to the width and 5" inches to the length. That could happen.

I will do almost anything to avoid getting around to the binding.
This horizontal orientation is actually how I shot both photos.

QAYG : Adding Wide Borders

Occasionally I want to add more to a piece and not have an obvious join with a connector strip. This calls for a flip and sew technique.
Here's the new section that I want to join my already quilted main section. The red strips will disappear into each other in the quilting and it will appear to be all one piece.

I hope.
To begin, I will need to cut backing fabric to size and cut a piece of batting to insert between the top and backing. Both will be slightly larger than the patchwork piece to allow for shrinkage when it is quilted.


Here I am showing that I want to line up my top piece with the seam on the already quilted piece. Pinning carefully is a good idea.














I will line up the top, right sides together, and the backing fabric, also right sides together, and leave the batting out of this part for now. Then I will sew a nice 1/4" seam joining the quilted part and the top and bottom of the new section. Next comes the batting, which is sewn by butting it up against the seam allowance and joined with a wide zig zag stitch.


 After the batting is stitched in place, I will carefully press the top and backing fabrics over the batting, pin and prepare to quilt it.
Only the new section needs to be quilted, and the rest of the quilt is to the left of my machine needle.

And that's all there is to that technique. I will be adding more width and length to this piece, but have yet to decide if it will be connector strips or flip and sew.

O By the way, I have collected all the QAYG posts and they can be accessed by looking on the side bar under Patterns and Tutorials.

QAYG : In Between Art and Function

Looking to expand what I can do as a piecer, which to me still feels like a non-arty pursuit, I just dove into this work full steam ahead. I tried not to worry about making art, and focused instead on grouping pattern and space to be pleasing to the eye. The striped fabrics I have been saving are my theme, and I was happy to find solids that coordinated, being tied together with the stripes.

As I pieced, it grew very quickly and I had to reign in my enthusiasm, as this all must be quilted and I don't want to deal with a really large section at once, knowing I can add more to it afterwards.
So the bottom section and the sides are just pinned in place for now, and may or may not be joined by more tomorrow.
The large light colored fabric is cream, not white, and that is echoed in the stripes.
Will this be for the bed, the lap or the wall?
I just don't know yet. But I do know that it will be straight line quilted, because it hardly needs fussy stitches, and because I really like the look of the lines.
So far, it's about 41x56".

Because I am retired and no longer enter shows, making artquilts has sorta been put on the shelf for now, and replaced with these QAYG experiments. There is something so angst-free about making them, and I am having a good time just doing the work. I am trying not to think about storing them afterwards. Always an issue...