I’m doing this twelve trees quilt (tutorial by Helen Howes) for my lovely friend who had to postpone her steampunk wedding until next year.
This was my first attempt and I can see that the trunk needs to be significantly thicker than the branches in the next one’s.
My question is about quilt as you go. The nature of this block -slash and go- means it doesn’t lay exactly flat. So I thought QAYG might work, does any one have any advice on joining the blocks? Links to good tutorials etc?! Any other suggestions. Would you use polyester or wool batting
Thanks! It was a replacement for a quilt my mom made for my friend’s granddaughter when she was born. It went through a lot of use and abuse, but she loved the original and wanted a new one, just bigger.
One thing my mom learned (we did the blocks together, but she had to finish it on her own) was that sewing 1/4 inch joining seams was tricky with the batting, especially on the borders. So, she made her seam allowance a little wider.
Each section was quilted with the batting already in place. We cut pieces of batting to fit each block. We did the appliques differently- for the elephant, I quilted the block first, the stitched the appliques on top. For the hearts, I stitched the appliques on first, then echo quilted around them. Then, all of the quilted sections were joined together. To attach the backing, my mom ended up tying it, but the original plan was to stitch in the ditch between the blocks.
She also though it would be easier to put a layer of muslin on the back while quilting so the batting didn’t get caught up in the machine.
I’ll see if I can refind them but I’ve seen a few YouTube videos where either the batting is cut the same size, like you did, or cut bigger to allow for sashing.
Again I’ve seen different techniques - either cutting batting bigger by half the width of the finished sashing or adding an extra strip of batting for the sashing.
Another tip I’ve seen is to cut the batting bigger, quilt, then trim to size. Sometimes the quilting pulls the batting in, effectively shrinking it.
Personally I would use cotton batting, nicer than poly, both working and using, and generally cheaper than wool and about half the price.
Thanks! That would be helpful for the next one! Wendi Gratz doesn’t typically put an extra border on her quilts, and she incorporates sashing into her blocks, so having an alternate method would be handy
I’ve done a QAYG quilt, and one thing that’s important is to use 100% cotton batting so that you can iron the seams open. When the seams include the batting, they can get a little bulky, so they need to be pressed open, and you don’t want to melt the batting when you iron them.
