Transcript:
Hi, it’s Jenny from, the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We have a fun tutorial for you today. Shirley and Linda from the comments section of the Quilter’s Daily Deal have asked for a tutorial on the “quilt as you go” method. So we thought we would make you girls happy and put out a tutorial on that. We love it when you guys ask for certain things because it helps us with our ideas.
Now the “quilt as you go” method, there’s all kinds of ways to finish your quilts as you quilt them. You can send it in to us, you can do it yourself, and this is one of those options. Sometimes we just need something small and we want to finish it quickly, and this is a really good way to do that. I generally do this on smaller quilts like table runners or baby quilts. It seems to work really well. So if it gets any bigger I think it would be a lot of basting and pinning and things like that but
Let me show you how we do this. This is the as you go method so, you don’t finish your top. You quilt a piece at a time. So, first we’re going to start here with a piece of backing and I thought we’d do a quick little table runner to show you how to do this. You’re going to lay that backing with the right side flat, or on the bottom, facing down. Then you’re going to layer a piece of batting on. One of the important things about this is that you get the top edge straight. You can trim up the sides but you want your top edge pretty straight. So, here we have our batting laying on top of our quilt back, and the
first thing we’re going to do is, see we have all these little strips and you cut strips for this project, this quilt as you go. You’re going to cut them in all different sizes.
So, we’re going to start here, let’s start with this little snowman one. That’ll be really cute. So, we lay this down, face right side up. OK, so then what we’re going to do is we are going to go to the sewing machine and we are going to sew this down here. Right along the top, just to anchor it. So, let’s go back to the sewing machine. OK, now I’m sewing right along this top edge. I haven’t really pinned anything because we’re just lining it up here and I’m using a darker green thread so that you can see it. We’re just going to go all the way across this top, and you’re going to see this come together so fast! What we’re doing is we’re sewing through all three layers so that it will already be quilted as you finish it up so let’s finish up this little strip.
Alright, there we go. Now remember you don’t have to back stitch or anything because all these seams are going to be included in something else. So, now we’re going to go back to the cutting table.
OK, so here we are back at the cutting table. You want to make sure that your backing is still smooth on the back and laying straight. Your batting is still smooth, and you can see we’ve anchored this piece on here with this one stitch along there.
Next you’re going to take the next strip that you want to put on there and you’re going to lay it face down just like that, right sides together, and because we’re getting into the strip way a little bit you’re going to want to pin this. So, you line it up with the edges and we’re just going to put some pins in here to hold this strip exactly on the edge of this other strip. It’s really important that your strips are cut nice and straight. I rotary cut mine. They’re all cut different widths so that it gives it a fun look on it, you know you really can do whatever you want. This just opens up a world of ideas for finishing quilts and making quick projects and gifts.
Alright let’s go stitch this down and we’ll see how this comes together. Alright, OK so now we’re just going to stitch ¼” up, on this bottom seam right here. I think you girls are going to crack up when you see how fun and easy this is! I did a darling baby quilt for one of my grandsons using the strip method. Cut out little cars and put them on the borfers. It was really fun, and it was all quilted when I was done. I just had to trim it up and put a binding on. Now as you noticed I removed those pins out as I came to them. And now we’ve got this sewn down and we’re going to go to the ironing board now and press this open.
Here we are at the ironing board and as you can see this is laying up. We’re going to pull it down and we’re going to press that over. The seam presses right into it, and if you look on the back, see how you can see this is already quilted, and if you look on the back there’s your first quilting line right there. Normally I would use thread that blends but I’m trying to do this so that you can see. So let’s go add another strip!
OK so again, we’re going to take another fun colored strip, this red one right here. We’re going to lay it right sides together. We’re going to pin and we’re going to head over to the sewing machine. So, each time you do a strip it gets further and further in on the quilt, and it’s important that you make sure that your backing is smooth under there, and that it’s all lined up nice and straight.
Let’s see, you don’t want to pull, by sewing these seams we’re quilting through all three layers at once, and so, now we’re going to go head over ,and iron this down. And we’ve got the next row and you can see that the quilting is happening on the back. It just makes it really fun and quick! Let’s head to the ironing board.
OK, so now we’re pressing this down just the same way. Just press it straight
over. The seam is enclosed inside. We can add another strip on here let’s go do that. See here’s our quilting on the back. No need to send it in you can do it right from your sewing machine. OK, now we’ve added quite a few more strips, and we’re here to our last strip and at some point you’re going to have to turn the piece around, because you don’t want all this in the throat of your sewing machine.
So we’re sewing on this last strip here and you want to make sure the further on you get down the quilt, you’re going to want to make sure that you pin a little more. So, that things don’t slide around. Your edges are going to be off and not exact, but that’s okay because we’re going to trim it up. So, let’s see how this goes. This is one of those things where if you need a gift that afternoon you could really make this happen. This is so quick and fun. OK, let’s head to the ironing board and iron out this last strip.
Now we’ve pressed this flat right here and what we’re going to do is we’re going to pin it down. You can see our back through it. And you can see that things aren’t even, but that’s alright, because we’re going to trim it. So we’re just going to go along here and pin it and were going to again sew along the top of this and anchor it just like we did at the top. So let’s head on over to the sewing machine and sew this top piece down.
OK, so we’re almost finished up here. All that will be left is the trimming and the binding, which we love to sit and do in front of the television, (laughter) or wherever we’re sitting! Alright, there we go! Let’s go trim it up.
OK, now we’re going to straighten out these ends. Trim off that excess batting and backing. There we go. See how nicely that cleaned up, and the top is already done. Now what we’re going to do on these sides is we’re going to cut off the edge. See we’ve got some selvedges and things like that, and you want to come in here and to make sure that your ruler is lined up straight you want to make sure that your lines are along your sewn lines, and then we’re just going to cut along here like this. Clean up that edge, see
how quickly that cleaned up. Sometimes, like down here see, I have a wide selvedge. I’m going to need to come in a little further than that or it’s going to show even under the binding so I may need to bring that in a little more. Yeah, I think I will, but let’s go ahead and do the other side. Isn’t this an adorable table runner for the holidays, and how fast was that! Really quick!
Alright, I like the leeway that the edge gives you so that you just have a little bit of edge there, so, you don’t have to be perfect about every little thing. And there you have it! We’re going to bind this. I’ll probably choose this cute red right here, and bind it and we have a great already quilted project that’s ready to go for a gift or whatever we want for the holidays.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.
