How to Slash Your Stash with the Quilt-As-You-Go Method

How often have you thought that you wish you could finish your quilt without having to take it to a longarm quilter? If you learn how to quilt as you go, you can accomplish this. 

My latest book Quilt As-You-Go For Scrap Lovers teaches you how to quilt your quilts, no matter how large all by yourself. You can use your domestic machine to make really nice custom quilting designs.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds but you need to learn how to do the steps to completion. My book walks you through several different approaches. Quilt As-You-Go For Scrap Lovers isn’t just one approach, there are multiple ways to do it depending on how your quilt is laid out.

It is a lot of work, I’m not going to lie. Anything worth having is going to be a lot of work. But the sense of satisfaction that you get from finishing your own quilt is amazing.

So, how is it done? Well, it’s done in sections. The meat of the matter is all in how you put it together in the end. Like I said in the above paragraphs, it’s done in multiple different ways. It would be a great idea to choose one method and try it out.

For example, this quilt was put together using the columnar method.

It really looks like it was assembled on point, but it wasn’t! Look at the custom quilting in this quilt that I was able to accomplish. Long arm quilters don’t do custom quilting anymore, or at least not as frequently. It’s way to inefficient. But, you can do it yourself.

My new book doesn’t teach you how to quilt on a domestic machine, but, rather, it teaches you how to set up your quilt so that you can custom quilt it.

There are multiple techniques. For example, this quilt was also done in the columnar fashion, but was done horizontally instead of vertically.

You can see that it’s on my sewing table. This is just one section of the quilt. I was able to easily quilt this on the sewing machine that you see in the background. I love this quilt because it is completely made with scraps, and, it looks like its woven.

The quilting process is a lot like making an occupied bed. Anyone that is a nurse will understand exactly what I am saying.

Another advantage to doing quilt as you go is that you can use super fun things for your backing. Oh, you can do this with any regular quilting technique such as long arm quilting too, but quilt as you go gives you the control over how you can center your backing and where the fun backing falls. I used an ombre on the back of this quilt, so I was kind of particular about the way that the gradation fell. And, I was able to control that!

Here's a picture of that quilt once it was completely done. It’s one of my favorites.

Do you love scraps? Because I love making scrap quilts more than any other kind of quilt. This technique of doing quilt as you go with scraps will save you so much money, and we all know how important that is.

Another way to quilt as you go is to do it in quarter sections. This is really helpful when a quilt is very large, as this one is. This one measures to a very large queen size.

You can see from the photo that is was first sewn together in four quadrants.

It’s quite large, and that is why I had to photograph it from up above. You can see that the one section in the upper left has already been quilted, because the batting is hanging out at the side. The remaining 4 quadrants will be quilted next. How they will be joined will be shown in the book.

But…here’s a little peek.

And here we are, putting it all together.

One of the quilts in the book has templates and you do curved piecing. If you like a challenge, this is right up your alley.

I promise, there’s something for everyone in this book. You can view pictures of the quilts on the C&T Publishing website by searching for the book, Quilt As-You-Go For Scrap Lovers. I know that you will love it!

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Judy Gauthier owns Bungalow Quilting and Yarn, a modern quilt shop. A fabric designer with Andover Fabrics and a Certified Critical Care Nurse, Judy has four children and two grandchildren. She lives in Ripon, Wisconsin with her husband. bungalowquilting.com