Quilt as you go-go...

Given the success of the last mini-QAYG project, I thought the girls would enjoy contributing to a larger quilt. Attention spans are waning now that their doll quilts (the original goal of our lessons) are finished; these 10" x 13" blocks finish quickly, and we're all looking for a little instant gratification at this point.

All ready for a QAYG!

I cut a bunch of backing squares and batting, established a layout for the back (the middle stripe on the front coordinates with the backing fabric so I can keep the layout straight without having to flip the blocks over to determine who's who), and emptied the box of trimming strips. Everything was spread out on the floor when they walked in the door.

The girls finished six of the colored blocks, which made a good dent. I kept going with the colored blocks after they left and got them all quilted.

I've discovered that I don't trim my strips nearly wide enough -- this would go a lot faster if I'd give up more than two inches of fabric when evening up cuts. Cutting some wider strips is in order to make the black blocks finish more quickly. The girls aren't big fans of "Skinny Minnies."

As much as I'd like to wrap this marathon up, they won't be back for at least three weeks with Easter and Spring Break coming up. Their mother really wants them to get a good sense of their contribution and understand that they're using what they've learned in order to give back. For that, I'm happy to extend the finish line a little longer.

My cat is a camera hog...

He knows where I keep my camera, and the thunk! the drawer makes when I take it out. The quilt is still drifting to the floor when he appears out of nowhere and pounces on it, ready for his photo op.

My original intent was to audition thread before I started pinning, but that notion got rejected rather quickly.

First the thread had to be inspected...

Then the quilt sandwich tested for nappability.

That workstep takes quite a while. Quality Control means everything to this guy.

And you wonder why I never get anything done?

The Curse of the ADD Crafter...

The girls didn't have acting class this week so didn't come by for their sewing lesson, which puts our quilt-as-you-go projects on hold until next weekend. That's fine by me, because I got it in my head around Wednesday or Thursday that I should see if I could do a QAYG project on a larger scale. You know, because I didn't have anything else to work on.

I cut a bunch of strips of varying widths from my "Good & Plenty" stash, and used that pink and black spray dot yardage for backing. Kind of wish I'd thought it through a little better, but if I don't charge full speed ahead with an idea once it's popped into my head, there's a very good chance it won't reach the finish line. It's The Curse of the ADD Crafter.

Turns out this was a perfect spell to counteract the Curse! It took a day to tack the strips down, and another day to quilt and bind. Wham bam, and it was done! And I learned a couple things along the way, which made the entire venture worth it:

1. Extra pinning perpendicular to the stitching helps avoid creep. I started out pinning parallel to the seam, and things on both the front and the back got shifty very quickly.
2. Press after every strip so the previous strip doesn't buckle. The wiggly quilting afterward helped camouflage this, but it's nice to have things flat to begin with.
3. I wish I'd marked horizontal reference lines on the batting before I started, because things got a little crooked toward the bottom.

Edited to add:  I would have started this whole thing in the middle instead of at the top. It would have been much more manageable if I'd gone in either direction, and I probably wouldn't have had as many problems with shifting.

It ended up ~40" x 48". As a first try and a really quick project, I give a thumbs up.

This one goes in the Quilts for Kids pile, and I get to put a check mark in the Finish column. Awesome!

More fun than piano lessons...

Big Sis' quilt is done! I bound the two long sides and saved the short ones for her, which she completed with flying colors.

Neither girl had the patience to move onto garment sewing, so as a surprise, I made each girl pajama pants for her American Girl to match the backing and binding on their quilt. Both girls and dolls seem quite happy.

I started Little Sis on a quilt-as-you-go string doll quilt, which she took to pretty quickly. The fast results and unbridled play in my box of WOF scraps kept her attention for the entire session. She'll add her own quilting on top of it this Saturday.

Big Sister gave me the ultimate complement as she was leaving:  "This is WAY more fun than my piano lessons! And there's no recital!"