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Have you wanted to Quilt Your Own quilts? As soon as I started making quilts I knew I'd want to quilt them as I'd be making a LOT of quilts. Over 600 quilts later I learned tips & tricks to help you. I know where the pitfalls are and how to over come them... we'll chat about those in my Quilt Your Own Quilt sew along!
The Details
Since I've written an entire teaching book on how to quilt your own quilt, we'll be using that as our tutorial.
My Grandma's Kitchen quilt is a perfect quilt to use as it's sewn in rows so you can quilt in sections which is very manageable
I know some of you would rather use a different project, which is totally ok! My book has 12 different projects you can make, or find a quilt top you already made, or a quilt panel to use.
I will have 6 assignments between today and Jan 20th 2018. I am out of town on business trips for a few of the days I'd normally have written an assignment, so we won't have them if I'm not available to answer questions. This gives you time to work on it too. The schedule is at the end.
My book covers both quilting with your walking foot and with your freemotion foot.
For this sew along we'll be using my walking foot section of the book. If you prefer to do the freemotion section go right ahead!
During Each assignment I'll tell you the page in the book where the tutorial, tips and notes are. I'll also share things I've learned by making mistakes, then tell you how to avoid doing the same.
PLUS I Have a BONUS tutorial for the last assignment! -- When you quilt in sections you have to assemble them. There are many ways to cover the seams of the sections that you quilt individually. Quilting sections and then assembling them is commonly called 'Quilt as You Go' or QAYG for short. For my BONUS I'll show you ONE way to cover the seams. That is at the last assignment after we've quilted the sections.
What You Need now, discussion follows on some of this
- Purchase a copy of my book 'Teach Me to Machine Quilt' ... A Physical Copy .. or a Kindle Version .. or a PDF from my publisher's website
- A Quilt Top or a Quilt Panel
- Batting
- Backing fabric
- Thread
- Basting Spray or Pins with a Kwik Klip
Assignment #1
Prep Your top
On Page 8 of my book I tell you how to prep the top. And for book owners, there is a BONUS Video you have access to. The link is right under the photo on page 8.
PITFALL/Solution - If you don't have a border on your quilt, your block seams are right at the outer edge. They could separate as you are working with your quilt. On Page 8 I give you my solution & that video shows you what I do to avoid that issue.
Batting
I'm going to use this blend of 80% cotton 20% poly.
Page 11 has a discussion on batting. If you are quilting in Sections you will need a bit more batting than I say in the book because you are actually quilting multiple quilts instead of one quilt.
PITFALL/Solution - Read the directions on your batting to see how close together they recommend your quilting to be. There are some old fashioned 100% cotton battings that are wonderful to quilt with, but require a much denser quilting than you may want to do.
Backing discussion
You want your backing to be larger than the top.
PITFALL/Solution - I try NOT to be frugal here.. because whenever I try to 'save fabric' by making my backing/batting only a little bigger than the top, I end up with problems lining up the 3 layers and have to redo things.
- Make your backing and batting at least 4" x 4" larger than the top. That is 2" larger than the top ON ALL SIDES.
- For a larger quilt I will make it 3" or 4" all the way around.
- 4" x 4" larger is plenty if you are quilting in sections. Below I have some photos.. keep going!
Page 9 and 10 in my book tell you how to sew your backing fabric if it's not wide enough.
Basting
Here is my top section of my Grandma's Kitchen quilt ready to baste.
For this sew along I'm going to spray baste mine because the units are not that wide and I have a lot of control over it when spraying.
Page 12 to 14 have the two types of basting explained along with a Book Owner's Bonus video link
PITFALL/Solution - I have this tip in the book, but it's important to say to be careful with over spray. If I am spraying inside, I do this
- start at one end of the top, spray about 12" on the batting and place top over it
- Smooth the top flat
- Lift top to the left of that and do another 12".
- Smooth the top flat again as you baste each portion
- Press with steam after the top is basted.
- BONUS TIP - Next I trim the batting and backing before I turn it over to spray the backing.
- Flip so the backing is facing you and repeat the spray basting here.
Border discussion
My Grandma's Kitchen has no border on it. But some of you want to put a border on AND Quilt as You go.
BONUS TIP -
- Attach the TOP border to the top two sections before basting.
- Attach the Bottom border to the bottom two sections before basting
- Quilt the side borders as separate units that you will sew to the top once all the rows are sewn together
REMINDER - Jan 20th is my 'Quilt As You Go' BONUS discussion
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Time to Baste!
Now prepare your quilt so it's ready!
What Do I need again?
- Purchase a copy of my book 'Teach Me to Machine Quilt' ... A Physical Copy .. or a Kindle Version .. or a PDF from my publisher's website
- A Quilt Top or a Quilt Panel
- Batting
- Backing fabric
- Thread
- Basting Spray or Pins with a Kwik Klip
The Sew Along Schedule
- ALL Posts incase you missed one
- Dec 27 - Assignment 2 - Thread Selection, Walking foot, Securing sections with walking foot - ALSO baste your quilt if you didn't get a chance to do it yet
- Dec 30 - Assignment 3 - Designs - with Facebook live that I will upload to Youtube
- Jan 13 - Assignment 4 - Quilt next section
- Jan 17 - Assignment 5 - Quilt last section
- Jan 20 - BONUS Assignment 6 - How I cover seams of the sections. This is just one of many ways you can do that.
- With Video or FB live, not sure which
