Got Stash?

 Need a quick holiday gift??

Well do I have the answer for you.
Quilt As You Go!

A few weeks ago, I attended a class my quilting buddy taught her church group. If you have never seen this method, it's great. You actually piece one side of the quilt as you quilt the other. You start with batting squares and add your fabrics.

Quiltingworks.com has a great free tutorial!

                                                              This is the back of my quilt!   Pretty cool huh??

It's a great way to use up those left over strips, one can collect.  You can be as planned as you like with the design, or random as you can possibly get. My first one was a bit planned. I used flannel on both sides, so needless to say, it is heavy and warm  (very warm). I probably would not suggest it for use in Hawaii, or Phoenix, Las Vegas, anywhere where the temperatures get over 32 degrees!!  :-)  But seriously, if you use cottons, it's a very nice weight quilt.
                                              
Ruth's big goal was to get us to "not" think about the placement of the strips, colors or the widths, just plop them down and stitch, it was kind of painful for those who like some kind of order in their quilting, but it didn't take long for them to warm up to the idea and soon we were all stitching away, and laughing up a storm,  at the combinations everyone was sewing. I have to say, all sewn up, each block was fabulous. But did I have my camera that day???  Of course not!  Sorry!

Now my second one, (cause don't ya know I am now addicted to this method) has a planned and a random side.

Now I know I am stuck in a box, all my quilts have the diamond layout, but there are many ways you can put these blocks together. Thow them down on the floor and start playing! It's just too fun!

Joining your blocks together info...
Will make much more sense to you once you see the directions...

                                                             BUT

Just a note on the width of the strips when putting together the blocks. We decided that we liked a 1" strip instead of 1-1/8" for joining the blocks, and a 1- 5/8" width for the folded strip. That way the blocks touched each other and there wasn't a gap with no batting in between the blocks and row. This probably makes no sense at this point to you, but once you start stitching it together, it will.  For my flannel quilt I went with a 1" strip but my folded strip was 1-3/4" in order to accommodate the bulk of the flannel. That seemed to work out the best for me!  Experiment and see what your preferences are.

So hop over the Quiltingworks.com and start one for yourselves!

You can make warm and cool sides, bright and pastel sides, oriental and tribal sides, yellow and orange...  The list goes on and on!


                                                             :-)

                                 Don't forget to show us what you did!