Quilt As You Go

YOU GUESSED IT..!! I'M GONNA WORK ON MY SPLENDID SAMPLER QUILT..!!

To review -- In February of 2016, the TMBC ALL got involved in the fabulous internet sew-a-long, the Splendid Sampler. I posted the results of those weekly blocks every Wednesday for A SOLID YEAR... (there were TWO new designs every week)...

Week after week -- Linda P. and Sandy never missed a single block...they stayed with it FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR. It was so much fun to have a "Sew and Tell" every week as a part of our TMBC breakfast.

Unfortunately, I was not so devoted. I gave it a good shot, and I learned a lot...but for me, one of the big lessons was that I am not a quilter.

However, at the end of the year, I had (more or less) completed 50 blocks...and, Linda P. kindly gifted me 29 of her rejects (which were all perfect, incidentally)...so I actually DO have enough blocks to MAKE A REAL QUILT. (if I put it together just right...)

I packed up my blocks and headed to our first TMBC Sew-in for 2018. The room at the Bettendorf Library was SO PERFECT.

We each had our own 6' table and a very large workspace.

At the end of a VERY LONG DAY -- with a lot of help from my friends -- I actually figured out, AT LAST, how to put this sucker together using the Quilt-As-You-Go method...!!

I laid out my completed blocks. Each one of my SS blocks has a piece of flannel on the back. Sometimes, I sewed around the designs...other times, I sewed a big "X". But that flannel piece provides the warmth and weight for the quilt...

Then, I cut the squares that would become the BACK of my quilt

The trick is to SEW THE BACKER SQUARES in a row....(they are 2" bigger than the SS blocks)

That creates a 1" seam...and, AFTER I position the SS block, I'm gonna fold those raw edges UNDER...get it??

Folding under those raw edges of the backer fabric, also covers the raw edges of the SS blocks.  At this point, I am simply pressing everything into position.

I clipped and/or pinned the SS blocks to keep things in place.

I carefully worked one row at a time.

The next step is to topstitch those folded edges.

 

I rolled the strip, and began topstitching the seams.  The strip (of 8 blocks) unrolled as I worked my way through the blocks...

This is what a finished row looked like.

I had intended for the BACK of the quilt to be a checkerboard pattern (but at this point, I had a few issues to deal with)

Some of my blocks turned out great.

Others had some issues.

But -- PUT ALL TOGETHER -- it's going to be A.M.A.Z.I.N.G...