Archive | Quilt as you Go

Quilt As You Go Improv Pillows

March 9, 2014

Hi All! This is Jera from www.QuiltingintheRain.com bringing you a creative weekend project. This pillow uses a modern Quilt as you Go technique which will be featured in my upcoming book, Quilt-As-You-Go Made Modern, to be released this Fall. I’m so excited to share this technique with you all!

The Quilt as you Go technique is very creative as it doesn’t follow a precise pattern. Rather, it takes on more of a improvisational style of piecing and quilting. For updates on my latest quilting endeavors, check out my Quilting in the Rain Facebook page and blog. You can also find me on Instagram. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Materials:
Please Note – For this pillow I used leftover Layer Cake squares from the April Showers Collection by Bonnie and Camille. Leftover fat quarter scraps will work too. For the solid borders, I used Moda Solids Prairie Cloth in Buff (this material is home decor weight but has a linen/canvas feel to it). For the back of the pillow, I used Moda’s Twill (home decor weight), Nautical Ticking Stripes in Red.

For Pillow No.1 (14″ x 14″ pillow cover):

1 layer cake square (or a 10″ square cut from a fat quarter)
1/4 yard border fabric
3/8 yard Backing
15.5″ x 15.5″ batting square (needle-punched batting)
pillow insert

For Pillow No.2 (16″ x 12″ pillow cover):

6 layer cake squares for variety (or six different fat quarter prints)
1/4 yard border fabric
3/8 yard backing
17.5″ x 13.5″ batting square (needle-punched batting)
pillow insert

Instructions for Pillow No. 1 (14″ x 14″ pillow cover):

1. Take a 10″ square and place it in the center of the batting. Place a few pins to help keep it down. Then, quilt it directly to the batting. As shown below, make sure your stitch starts and ends on the batting.

I did free-motion quilting with some simple loopy-loops. If you’ve never
free-motion quilted before, now is a good time to try it out as it’s
easier to do it on a smaller, more manageable block.

2. From your border fabric, cut two 3.5″ strips along the length. Take a strip and trim it with fabric scissors so it’s the same length as the side of the square. With right sides facing together, sew a 1/4″ seam allowance.

3. Press open, and then quilt lines that run parallel to the seam. There will be some extra fabric hanging over the batting. As shown below, make sure your stitch starts and ends on the batting.

4. Take the strip and trim it with fabric scissors so that it measures the length of the square and strip that you just pieced together, as shown below. With right sides facing together, sew a 1/4″ seam allowance.

5. Press open, and then quilt lines that run parallel to the seam. There will be some extra fabric hanging over the batting.

6. Repeat the previous steps until there is border fabric surrounding all four sides of the square. You are essentially piecing fabric in a log-cabin style method, but quilting it directly onto the batting as you go.

When you are finished, the entire batting will be covered and will look similar to this.

The back will look similar to this:

Flip the block over so the batting side is facing you. Trim the excess fabric sticking out side of the batting. Then, flip it over so the patchwork is facing you and trim approximately 1/4″- 1/2″ from all four sides so that your block measures 14.5″x14.5″.

7. Next, create an envelope closure for the backing. From your backing fabric, cut two 11″x14.5″ rectangles. Along the length (14.5″ side), turn the edge 1/4″ under,
press, then turn under 1″, then press again. Stitch along the fold to
keep in place to create a pretty seam. Repeat on the other rectangle as well.

With right sides facing together, take one rectangle and align it
along the left side of the pillow cover. The finished seam you
created from the previous step should be facing toward the right. Pin
to keep in place, then sew a 1/4″ seam allowance along the perimeter as illustrated by the dashed
line below. Start and end your stitch with a
back-stitch.

Repeat with the other rectangle, but align it on the right side of the pillow. Lastly, trim the corners to get rid of bulk fabric, and then turn right side out.

Insert the pillow and there you have it! 🙂

Instructions for Pillow No.2 (16″ x 12″ pillow cover):

Please note: For this pillow, the same exact technique that was described above (for pillow No.1) was used, except with smaller pieces of fabric. The technique I explained from the first pillow will give you the basic understanding you need to complete this next pillow. That being said, I will not list step-by-step instructions. Rather, I have listed the order in which the strips should be pieced. Enjoy! =)

1. From your fabric, cut one 3″ square and a couple 2″ strips from each print (you will trim these strips as needed).

2. Start by placing the 3″ square in the center of the batting, and then quilt it. Next, add strips making sure to trim them with fabric scissors to the correct size. Add the strips in the following order, using the quilt as you go method previously described. For this pillow, I quilted straight lines that ran parallel to all of the seams.

Tip! Fabric can shift while stitching on the batting. Correct for this by
keeping the strips aligned and ‘square’ them as necessary. The seams of each successive piece should be at a 90° angle to the previous quilted piece.

Also, please note that your pieces will shift around slightly and the batting will stretch a little – this is completely normal. So don’t expect yours to look as straight as the illustration above. =)

3. From your border fabric, cut one 5-6″ wide strip along the length. With right sides facing together, place the strip along the length of the patchwork as shown below. Overlap the strip with the patchwork as needed to straighten it out, and as mentioned in the “Tip!” above. Sew.

4. Press the strip down, and then quilt lines that run parallel to the seam. Repeat for the top so that the entire batting is covered.

5. Flip the block over so the batting side is facing you. Trim the excess
fabric sticking out side of the batting. Then, flip it over so the
patchwork is facing you and trim approximately 1/4″- 1/2″ from all four
sides so that your block measures 16.5″x12.5″.

6. Next, create an envelope closure for the backing. From your backing fabric, cut two 11″x12.5″ rectangles. Repeat step 7 from Pillow No.1 to create the envelope closure and to finish your pillow.

And that’s it! Quilt as you Go is definitely a fun and different way to quilt. I hope you enjoyed learning this new improvisational technique! Now that you know the concept, you can get really creative with all the other fun Quilt as you Go pillow designs you can think up!

(Above: Paige modeling a Quilt as you Go strip quilt using the Scrumptious collection by Bonnie and Camille).

Let your creativity rain!

xoxo

-jera

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A New Quilt, Moda Bakeshop tutorial and Quilt as you Go Class!

March 7, 2014

Before I move forward with any updates, I wanted to give a sneak peak of my latest quilt! (I still need to bind it!) This is a low volume bundle quilt. If you love it, my next post will have a tutorial on it along with a custom quilt kit from my friend Cristi over at Whimsy Quilts and Fabrics! Like me, Cristi lives in Washington but in the city of Issaquah. If you haven’t yet, check out her shop and use discount code RAIN15 for 15% off, which is good for this whole month of March 🙂 I’m a long time customer of her shop, which used to be an etsy.

Next, my Quilt-as-you-Go pillow tutorial posted on Moda Bakeshop this morning! Check it out for a taste of my modern Quilt-as-you-Go technique to be featured in my upcoming book. Enjoy! Oh, and thanks to moda Bakeshop, HERE’s a printable version of it.

Next, if you’re in Washington I have another Quilt-As-You Go class at the Quilting Loft in Ballard, Seattle. The class is on Tuesday, May 6th from 6-9pm. Register here. I hope to see you there and I’d love to spend the evening sewing with you 🙂 !! I’ll be teaching how to make the following quilt, but you’ll also learn the technique so you can take your quilt in a whole other direction if you wish – it’s a very creative technique and class!

Finally, here are a few more pictures from last night of my latest quilt. I was up until 1 AM happily quilting it! 🙂 I was in ‘the zone.’ This was my first quilt doing free-motion quilting without using my quilting frame (which i sold after having Ethan). I had a sudden streak of confidence to do this. I’m sure it’s from all the free-motion quilting practice I had from my latest Quilt-as-you-Go quilts.

I stuck with simple loopy-loops…

Absolutely LOVE how it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by my blog to see my latest! Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend 🙂

xoxo

-jera

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What a Weekend!

February 25, 2014

Just a quick update with some pretty pictures of what I’ve been up to. 🙂 Last weekend I whipped up these pillows. I used my modern quilt as you go technique to be featured in my book coming out this year. 🙂 Even better, I will be doing a tutorial on these cuties over at Moda Bakeshop so stay tuned. I’ll be sure to announce it here and FB. Fun stuff!

Here’s the quilting up close. What i love about quilt as you go is it eases you into free-motion quilting. I didn’t start free-motion quilting until now.

The fabric collection I used is called April Showers by Bonnie and Camille. I absolutely HAD TO HAVE THIS. With the raindrops and umbrellas, it’s sooo Quilting in the Rain! 😉

On a completely different note, I wanted to share some photos of a little family getaway we did last weekend. We took a 15 min. ferry across the sound to Whidbey Island and stayed at the cutest little b&b cottage for one night. It felt like we were so far away from the city, yet we were close to home.

I admit that there wasn’t much to do because it was a quiet little town in the middle of winter, but it was so nice just doing NOTHING for once. When everything closed by 6pm we found a Redbox, bought a bunch of junk food and did a movie night with the munchkin. Plus we got the amazing winter rates on the cottage, lol!

And here’s my subtle transition back into fabrics…

On our way home we stopped at this quilt shop called In Stiches in Anacortes. Don’t you love hunting down quilt shops when you’re in a new town? We could have taken a quick 15 min. ferry back home, but I insisted we take the “scenic route” which happened (okay, totally planned) to pass us by this shop.

Anyway, it wasn’t hard to miss with it being neon green…

It was a cute shop! Here’s the loot I came out with. You know that I don’t usually buy patterns, but I love this particular ‘Swoon’ pattern by Thimble Blossoms. I hot got hooked after seeing everyone’s swoon quilts on instagram, which I’m a bit obsessed with.

I also got Camille Roskelley’s latest book ‘Simply Retro’ which is a Stashbook! I absolutely love the style and format of Stashbooks with their clean and simplified instructions and beautiful pictures. I’m happy to say that my upcoming book will also be a Stashbook. They’re the first place I thought of when I did my book submission.

Oh, and right across the street from the quilt shop was one of my favorite bakeries called Calico Cupboard. So I bought all my quilty stuff followed by major carb-loading. yay!

All in all, last weekend was so much fun and jam-packed! We did the one-nighter at the cottage, ended up all the way in Anacortes and found that quilt shop, and then I cranked out these pillows the next day, followed by a birthday party shortly after.

With that, I leave you with a couple fun pictures of my little quilt models.

and for all of you Paige fans… 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my ‘online journal’ of all my quilty endeavors. Happy Quilting!

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Quilt as you Go Log Cabin Tutorial

February 13, 2014

You all asked for it, so here you go! 🙂 This one is especially for all my facebook followers – I wouldn’t be blogging and pushing myself to learn new techniques if it weren’t for your support. Thank you!

This quilt is featured on Pellon Perojects. You can find a printable version of it HERE.

Final quilt measures approximately 33″ x 36″. It makes a lovely wall-hanging or baby quilt.

This tutorial is one form of Quilt as you Go where a quilt is pieced directly onto one big piece of batting. I have a book coming out this September which explains everything you need to know about my modernized technique so you can really get creative with it. Hopefully this tutorial (and another one I have pending) will satisfy your curiosity in the meantime. 🙂

Supplies:

6 half yards for the top (you will have leftover fabric. I suggest you save them for my next tutorial!)
Backing: 1 yard
Binding: use leftover fabric
Batting: Crib-size cotton Legacy batting by Pellon. Trim down to approximately 34″ x 37″.

I recommend Pellon’s needle-punched batting for Quilt as you Go
projects because its a dense batting that doesn’t stretch much,
making it very easy to work with.

I got my fabric from a cute online fabric shop called Simply Sweet Fabrics. I wanted to share this because I love to support small businesses. Plus, it’s these small boutique shops that always have the best and most unique fabric selections!

Please read: Before you start, I want to say that this style of Quilt as you Go does not use precise measurements, so you’ll notice me saying to cut approximate (~) size pieces. And remember, you can make your strips as narrow or as wide as you want to give it a different look. Also, when quilting your pieces directly onto the batting, make sure your stitch starts and ends on the batting, as illustrated in my photos below.

Step 1: From your fabric, cut an ~8″ square. Place it in the center of the batting (I placed mine a little above the center). Quilt it directly onto the batting.

I quilted simple straight lines:

Step 2: From the length of your fabric, cut a strip that’s ~6.5″ wide. Place the strip next to the square and trim using fabric scissors so it’s the same length as the square. With right sides facing together, sew a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Press open with an iron, and then quilt it directly onto the batting. I quilted lines that ran parallel to the seam.

Step 3: From the length of your fabric, cut a 2nd strip that is ~5.5″ wide. Using fabric scissors, trim the strip so it’s the same overall length as the previous two pieces (as shown below). With right sides facing together, sew a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Press open, and then quilt it directly onto the batting. I did free-motion quilting for all the solid-colored fabrics because the design shows up better. Whatever design you quilt, make sure it runs parallel to the seam.

If you’re new to free-motion quilting, I suggest you start with a simple and small-scale design like small loopy-loops, as I’ve done. A few free-motion quilting tips: 1) wear quilting gloves to help give you more control of the quilt; 2)When is starts feeling awkward, stop and readjust – just make sure your needle ends on down position; 3) don’t forget to breath! =)

(Note: the loopy-loops and all other quilting in my illustrations are not to scale. See the picture below for a better idea of the scale)

Step 4: Continue adding strips using the method previously explained, except add them in the order shown below. For example, the next strip to add would be #4.

The approximate widths of the fabric strips are as follows. Be sure to cut the strips along the length of your fabric as you need to work with longer strips. Then simply trim to size using fabric scissors.

#4 is ~7″ wide
#5 is ~6″ wide
#6 is ~5″ wide
#7 is ~6.5″ wide
#8 is ~5.5″ wide
#9 is ~7.5″ wide
#10 is ~8.5″ wide

Tip! Fabric can shift while stitching on the batting. Correct for this by keeping the strips aligned and ‘square’ them as necessary. Each successive piece should be at a 90° angle to the previous quilted piece.

Step 5: After all of the strips have been attached, your quilt will look similar to this.

(Back)

(Front)

The next step is to square up your quilt. With the batting side facing you, trim off all the excess fabric outside the batting. Then, fold the quilt in half and align the fold with a line on a cutting mat grid. Straighten the quilt as much as possible. Trim 1-2 inches on the sides with no fold to square it up. The quilt will end up measuring approximately 33″ x 36″.

Step 6: The last steps remaining are to add the backing fabric and then bind the quilt. To add the backing fabric, baste the 1 yard of backing fabric to the quilt. Obviously, since you’ve already quilted the fabric onto the batting, all you need to join is your quilted top and the backing fabric. This makes basting really fast!

Minimal quilting is needed to attach the backing fabric. I simply did stitch-in-the-ditch in the seams, as designated by the dashes below.

Stitch-in-the-ditch is basically stitching a straight line directly into the seam. I suggest starting out really slow when doing this.

Whichever seams you decide to stitch-in-the-ditch, have fun with it and keep in mind of the design it will make on the back.

Lastly, bind your quilt! check out my easy binding tutorial.

Thank you for your interest and for checking out my tutorial! If you love this non-fussy and very creative style of quilting, watch for my upcoming book later this year. 🙂

For a printer friendly version of this tutorial, please click HERE. Compliments of Pellon. 🙂

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Quilt as you Go Strip Quilt

February 10, 2014

Update 3/18: Here are some recent photos of this quilt as-you-go strip quilt. The pattern and technique can be found in my first book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern.)

Original post:

I was going through my camera and found all these beautiful photos I had taken of my quilts and thought I need to get these up on my blog! What better way to archive my quilts 🙂 For those that follow me on Facebook and Instagram, sorry for some of the repeat pictures.

This is one that I made last month using my modern Quilt as you Go
method. The pattern will be in my book which comes out in September. The book couldn’t come any sooner! I’ve found that one of the hardest parts about doing my book is not being able to share this technique with you all until it comes out. It’s such of a fun, simple, fussy-free and best of all, creative technique – I absolutely cannot wait to share it!

In the meantime, I will have a sample quilt as you go tutorial coming soon on my blog. I couldn’t leave you all hanging! I promised the tutorial last week, but there were some delays as I’m working with Pellon brand to get the tutorial out. Also, if you’re in the Seattle, Washington area I teach classes (check my blog for details).

I’m obsessed with this red biased binding – this is the 2nd quilt I’ve binded with it. 🙂

Being a mama that takes countless photos of her munchkin, you’ll see this cutie pop up in my quilt photos a lot.

…now isn’t this a cute bundle? 😉

He’s my pride and joy… my life. 🙂

A quilt plus chubby baby feet. You can’t go wrong!

The fabric I used is Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille for Moda Fabrics. I love their fabrics and am excited to use their latest collection called April Showers. It has that vintage retro look to it – absolutely love!