Quilt as you go

I 'quilt as you go' by machine. When I join the quilted sections I add a finished size 'flap' of 3/4 to 1 in. which is folded over the raw seam on the back and hand stitched in place. No one, including me, has ever been offended by this flap but it would not give the look you are wanting.

Other methods involve sewing the quilted sections of the quilt top together each layer separately- first joining the top layers right sides together, butting and stitching the batting pieces together and then stitching the backings together by turning one side under 1/4 in. (You must allow for joining the quilted sections by not quilting too close to the seam allowances and often have to go back and add a few stitches- plus the quilting patterns must be contained within the sections or they might not line up well.) I find that much too time consuming and fussy- but many do it with great success and the appearance is (possibly???) neater than my flap method. You will always have the appearance of the backing being pieced with any techinique- and the dimensions of the sections and the pattern they form is always a consideration.

An example- If you made each section a 12 in. block with 3 in. saching and made the sections in a width wide row. The first section would be a saching, a block and a saching. The next sections in the row would be only a block and a saching. The sections when viewed from the back would not all be equal. This might not appeal to you, either.

It's a solution but not always ideal depending on how 'fussy' you might be about the appearance of the back.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

IF I understand this correctly, this sounds very much like what I do.
It is good enough for me; I'm not looking for museum quality quilts or
to win any prizes. And the flap, if done carefully and handstitched
into place is really barely noticeable.
I just finished a huge sampler quilt using this method and I'm sure
the recipient won't mind the flaps on the back!

Claudia

Sorry; I hit the enter button prematurely!

I use the same flap technique as LEslie does, and I'm very happy with
it, but what if the quilt is not clear blocks? I have a double wedding
ring quilt, king size, in the make and although I am still far from
the quilting stage, I am thinking about it. I would rather machine
quilt it than hand quilt, but do not cherish wrestling it under the
machine. Still haven't figured out how to QAYG that one.

Books: I have 2 books by Betty Cotton that explain the flap method
quite well.

Claudia

It sounds very much as I expected. Thank you for your replies. I
might be able to get one of Ms Bonesteel's books, but I'm not sure it
will convince me that the method will give me the end product I
wanted. I'm going to have a play today with some squares and see if
the method I learned on You-Tube yesterday will give better results.
But I couldn't see how it would stuff the sashing to the same extent
as the blocks. I don't want thin bits, if I can help it.

See where I get to. I could see it being a really useful tool to have
in the armoury, but I don't think it is the ultimate solution I was
hoping it might be.

But what ever is?

Thanks.
Nel
(Gadget Queen)

You can get rid of a lot of bulk by quilting the TOP as you go (and
the batting), but onto a whole backing piece. Do as Leslie says,
starting with the center, which could be 2-3 "rings" wide. then add
ring strips as you go. You might find that you can do it easily in 3
sections. The most fiddly part of this for a DWR would be butting the
batting together. So don't try to make the batting follow the seams
-just use straight strips, a little wider than the top sections, and
add more as needed.
Roberta in D

On Sat, 14 May 2011 23:15:24 -0700 (PDT), claudia
wrote:

Sorry; I hit the enter button prematurely!

I use the same flap technique as LEslie does, and I'm very happy with
it, but what if the quilt is not clear blocks? I have a double wedding
ring quilt, king size, in the make and although I am still far from
the quilting stage, I am thinking about it. I would rather machine
quilt it than hand quilt, but do not cherish wrestling it under the
machine. Still haven't figured out how to QAYG that one.

Books: I have 2 books by Betty Cotton that explain the flap method
quite well.

Claudia