My challenge the last week or so was how to join these seams on these log cabin blocks. I’m sure there are easier and quicker ways to join these Quilt As You Go Blocks but I don’t want any thick or bulky seams, so this is how I choose to sew them together. If I ever made my own Quilt As You Go blocks I would make sure I left a good 1/4 un-sewn seam at all ends of all the outer seams of the blocks this would save so much time when you come to joining the seams the way I have done.
First I have cut off 1/4″ of the wadding this has to be done around all the blocks but I’m only cutting away the wadding for the seams I’m about to sew.
Resewing the seams I had to unpick to be able to trim the 1/4″off the wadding.
Close up of the seams I unpicked.
Joining seam pined and ready to be sewn
Front seam sewn looking at it from the back
Seam needs to be pressed flat to the right
Close up of the seam laying flat under the wadding.
Wadding whipped together.
Right top fabric pressed over whipped wadding
Left fabric raw edge turned under and pinned ready for sewing by hand will use a slip stitch and you should not see it, doing the join this way is taking time but there will be NO bulky seams.
Thanks for dropping in, I hope the above helps some of you to join your own quilt as you go blocks.
Cheers Glenda
I think this is the most common way I have seen the quilt as you go. I only tried this method one time and I was not a real experienced quilter at that time and mine didn’t turn out well, my stitches showed a lot LOL. I have heard of some that put a strip of sashing on the back over the joining area but that would make it lumpy I would think.
Hi Karen I have in the past bunted the blocks together then Zig Zaged them down the seams, after this I pinned sashings over the back seams and stitched them down by machine, I did try sewing the front the same way but did not like the look so sewed them on by hand, this was quick but it was not a log cabin design it was sample blocks and it worked, but I did not want to add another colour to these log cabins so making them up this way. So far so good LOL. But it is painfully slow but I’m fine with that one a day will get me there. Glenda sitting at the computer with the sun streaming in, it is around 12c cold for us.
This is a great little tutorial! I might try it out when I’ve got more blocks made for a pumpkin seed quilt that I’ve been hand apliqueing.
Hi Emily glad you found it useful and were able to follow it. I was trying to tell some one how I did it and it sounded so confusing I decided to take step by step photos, so much easier to follow LOL. It is a slow process but it does away with the bulky seams if I’d just joined them by machine. I also prefer to sew by hand as I have a back problem and sitting any time at a sewing machine is no joy. I made this a separate blog from my Wednesday WOW with Esther as I think only a few quilters will be interesting in, looking at so many of the same kind of photo’s. Looking forward to seeing your pumpkin blocks soon. Cheers Glenda
Hi Glenda, have never done a quilt as you go before but have used your top technique of trimming the batting back when I have decided I need a bigger border on a small applique project that I have used iron pellon on and it works very well. Great tutorial and love your blocks. Hugs Jenny.
When doing log cabin quilt as you go Do you need to leave the last row in each block on the front to allow for the top seam?