Quilt as You Go - Part 1

Hi everyone:

Before I went on vacation this summer, I was working on some Quilt As You Go (QAYG) projects. I was inspired to try this technique after enrolling in the Quilt As You Go Patchwork Bags class at Craftsy. While I didn't intend to make the bag – yet – I was intrigued by this technique and wanted to experiment with it a bit so I tried it a few different ways.

In the Craftsy class Tara Rebman is piecing her top and doing all the additional quilting at the same time. She is using a log cabin design and straight line quilting, so I thought I'd go through my scraps and try it Tara's way – top, batting and backing. Here are some photos of my process:

The straight line quilting gives a nice texture to the project and I liked the modern look.

It does take a bit of time though as you piece the top and then do the quilting right away. If your fabric piece is wide, you may have to quilt more than one straight line. Of course doing the quilting now saves you having to do it after the piecing is done. 

The piecing and quilting shows through on the back of the quilt and can be a bit messy (lots of starts and stops and some quilting lines overlapped and some didn't, so lots of thread).

PROS: 
Quilting is all done when you've finished piecing. 
Straight line quilting gives a nice texture to the project.

CONS: 
Extra thread on back of quilt may not be desirable. 
Have to bind the quilt when done (as opposed to doing a pillowcase binding method for smaller projects).

As I was working on the QAYG technique, I also wanted to experiment with piecing the top to the batting only and doing an overall quilting design later when I added the backing. Hopefully this would save me from having to pin the top before I quilted it - I hate pinning! I also thought I'd try doing a strip QAYG project for a table runner, rather than using a log cabin construction. I hoped that this method would keep the back of the quilt cleaner – you'd only see the quilting as in traditional methods. 

Next time I'll show you how this other method worked for me. 

Have you tried QAYG? Let me know your thoughts on this process in the comments below.