‘quilt as you go’ strip quilt tutorial

as promised I’m back with the process pics & explanation of how I made the magical lands quilt in less than a day… it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy ;)

I love strip quilts. l o v e them.  Ashley has made a few gems recently and posted a fab mini tutorial explaining her process which you might like to take a peek at.

I pieced and quilted the magical lands quilt as i went along – I’ve had a go at the  quilt as you go blocks by machine in a bee and figured it would translate to a strip quilt & it does . Yay. It’s probably nothing new but it’s new to me & I wanted to share in case it’s new to you too :)

I apologise in advance for the poor quality pics, the lighting in my play room is shocking.

Quilt as You Go Strip Quilt Tutorial

You’ll need ::

• Strips cut from the width of the fabric (mine vary from 1 1/2″ to 8″ or thereabouts)
• backing fabric cut slightly larger than the proposed size of finished quilt top
• batting/wadding cut slightly larger than proposed size of finished quilt top but smaller than backing, just like a regular quilt
• basting spray
• walking foot
• a few spare  hours

How to ::

Decide on finished size &  layout of your strips, then gather them in order into a neat pile. I cut my strips from the full width of the fabric which results in varying widths as fabric widths  tend to vary slightly between manufacturers & I had a mix of one line and Kona solids here.  I didn’t trim my strips all to the same width before I began as I knew  I would be trimming them at the end

I’m not a huge fan of spray basting, I always end up in a bit of a sticky mess, but it’s kind of essential for this method to prevent too much movement or slippage of your bottom 2 layers.  Following the directions on the spray baste can, attach your batting to your backing fabric.

Take your first strip and lay it right side up at the top of your batting . I didn’t cut the top of my batting very straight did I?! Never mind, but the straighter the better as it helps to line up the first strip by eye 

You might like to pin it in place, I didn’t worry as the batting kind of grabs onto it and holds it in place sufficiently.

Roll up the  excess of your quilt to make life easier at the machine …

… and starting from the top edge  begin quilting your first strip in place.  I quilted in my favoured ‘relaxed’ straight lines but you can do neat straight lines evenly spaced or not, or loops, or squiggles or whatever takes your fancy :)  Just remember not to go within the seam allowance of the bottom edge of the strip though I don’t suppose it really matters if you do.

When your first strip is all quilted into place, take your second strip and lay it onto your first strip right sides together …

… sew along the seam with a 1/4″ seam allowance … ( for ease I just used the edge of my walking foot as a guide which is a tad over 1/4″  & allowed for this when I worked out the finished length of  my quilt)

… remove from machine and finger press ( or cool iron) your second strip to it’s right side then begin quilting again just like you did with the first strip …

… continue to add strips is this way… (I kept both ends of the quilt rolled up as I worked along and  continuously alternated the sides I began quilting from to maintain an evenness of the top layer, you might find if you quilt in one direction only  that the top gradually moves over in that direction and you end up with a wonky woo)

… until you’ve added all your strips then simply trim your quilt …

… & bind in your preferred method & voila you’re done :) no back breaking basting to do here  as you’ve pieced & quilted all in one go! Hurrah!

made in an afternoon & bound that same evening with the super cute  Magical Lands fabric line by Saffron Craig :)

As mentioned in the previous post I rounded the corners following the methods in these tutorials

Finished size of my strip quilt is approx :: 42″ (width of fabric) x 62″

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