Part II: Curve it Up and QAYG....

In the previous post I showed my three quilts finished by the April 30th deadline for a discount from Stitched Studio.  Several years ago I took a class on a Quilt as You Go method from Betsey Carlson.  Those of you who know Betsey are aware of her endless energy.  Back then I was very new to quilting and doing everything by hand - including piecing so this QAYG method sounded like a life saver!  It wasn't, at least for me, from the school of " NOW I want it done"!  After doing a couple quilts with this "original" method, I just abandoned it knowing I just didn't have the patience for it.  Unlike Betsey, I wasn't going to sit at athletic events doing QAYG in the bleachers!  I always appreciated her enthusiasm for time saving methods.

About a year ago, my friend Caroll started teaching members of her Happy Scrappers Bee a new method she picked up on from Quilter's Edge, a blog.  I loved the simplicity of it but, of course I didn't want to start it from the very beginning since it makes a wonky quilt using this method.  After a bit of practice I adapted this method for blocks already quilted with the backing attached and trimmed to the unfinished  size.   My goal was to have it look traditional as much as possible and not feel the bulge from joining the blocks together as I would from the original method.  While you can't feel my quilt - this part of this overall disaster worked well, I thought.

 With this quilt, remember I did the 12 blocks into three tops, I did a narrow lattice-connector.  The block at about 1 o"clock has a strip added - but blended and quilted together.

 The next challenge was doing wider strip additions.  The machine quilting is straight lines following the length of the strip - bunchy by nature. but overall very smooth.

 Again, here I tried blending the strips with the block backing to look funky, and not obviously QAYG.  In the above picture, at the top right, a color issue appears.  Going back to my knitting days, 40 years ago, I remember yarn dye lots being important.  Same thing with fabrics....these fabrics are the same - just different dye lots.

 Just another example of the joiners on the back side. 

 I inherited my mother's love for gadgets.  At one of my other BOM's several years ago, the instructor raved about  this "hera" tool. It was so helpful and saved time.  Well, I found a definite purpose for it, finally!  As in the original method in QAYG, the folding in of a 1/4" edge for the last part of  attaching a strip is needed for completion.  With the strip on my table, a quarter inch ruler marking the needed measure and and held at where the fold line should be, the hera creased the 1/4" for easy ironing to the wrong side. 

The hera has a very sharp, defined edge for creasing fabric without tearing.  My fingers are so much better for using this tool prior.  I usually just fold and iron at the same time but the iron was really pushing the steam out last week.  Thank you hera...didn't we study about a Greek goddess Hera in school way back when?

Quilting is fun and frustrating - all in all I am having doubts about giving this quilts to the dogs....they're are perfect pads for the kennels, though!