6 easy steps to assemble a quilt using the quilt-as-you-go method

Yesterday on QUILTsocial, I used a variety of different notions, including UNIQUE SEWING Invisible Magnetic Snaps – Sew-On – 12mm (¹⁄₂″) – 2 sets, COSTUMAKERS General Purpose Closed End Zipper 20cm (8″) – White – 1700 and UNIQUE SEWING Double Adjust Parachute Buckle – Plastic – 25mm (1″) – White to make the final activity blocks for a fidget quilt. I quilted all the blocks before adding the textures and notions, so now I’ll use an easy quilt-as-you-go method to assemble the quilt.

The 11 blocks that will make up the fidget quilt.

Step 1 Sew two blocks together.

The first thing I’ll do to assemble my quilt is to sew a 4½” x 6½” block to a 5½” x 6½” block with the back sides together. I’ll use some UNIQUE QUILTING Clever Clips  Small – 12 pcs to secure the two blocks and sew along this edge using a ¼” seam.

Use clips to hold the blocks for stitching with the back sides together.

Step 2 Trim and press.

Next, I’ll trim the seam allowance to just ⅛” and use a CLOVER 7812 Roll & Press to open and flatten the seam between the two blocks.

Use a Roll & Press to open and flatten the seam between the two blocks.

Step 3 Make sashing.

I need to make sashing strips to cover the seams that are showing on the front of the quilt. To do this, I’ll first cut 5 – 1½” x WOF (width of fabric) strips from my sashing/binding fabric. I’ll place the first strip right side down on my UNIQUE QUILTING Wool Pressing Mat – 18″ x 24″ – Grey, fold the two long edges into the middle, and press with my  OLISO M2Pro Mini Project Iron  with Solemate. I’ll use my CLOVER 240 – Fork Pins – .56mm to secure the end to the wool pressing mat and then work my way to the other end, pressing the sides into the middle all along the strip. If you have a CLOVER 464/18 – Bias Tape Maker – 18mm(³⁄₄″), you could use it to make this process much quicker.

Fold the two edges of the strip into the middle on the back and press.

Step 4 Trim and spray the sashing strips.

Now I’ll cut 4 sashing strips that are 6½” long and spray the back of them with Odif 505 Temporary Quilt Basting Adhesive Fabric Spray – 156g. I use an old boot box to put the strips in for spraying. This helps to prevent the adhesive spray from getting on other items in my sewing room.

Trim the sashing strips and spray the back of each with adhesive spray.

Step 5 Sew sashing strips over the seams.

I’ll place the sashing strips over the seam allowances so all the raw edges are covered and press down on them so they are securely stuck in place. Next, I’ll use a matching thread to topstitch along each side of the sashing.

Topstitch along each side of the sashing with matching thread.

I’ll repeat these steps to cover all the shortest seams and sew these sections to the larger blocks.

Match the assembled blocks to the larger ones they will be sewn to.

I’ll follow the steps above to trim, flatten, and cover the seams and repeat the process until all the blocks have been assembled into the quilt top.

Step 6 Add borders (optional).

At this point, I could just put binding around the edge, and the quilt would be done, but I’d like it to have borders so it’s a bit larger. Since the rest of the quilt is already quilted, I’ll make a quilt sandwich using my border fabric and more of the FAIRFIELD  Low-Loft® Quilt Batting – Crib – 114 x 152cm (45″ x 60″) and quilt it on my sewing machine. To have enough for all 4 borders, I’ll make my quilt sandwich at least 12″ x 25″.

Next, I’ll cut the quilted border fabric into strips that are 2½” wide and trim 2 of these to be the same length as the sides of the quilt.

Once again, I’ll sew the border strips to the quilt with the backings facing each other, then trim, flatten, and cover the seam on the front with sashing strips.

Sew the side borders onto the quilt.

I’ll repeat this process to add the top and bottom borders to the quilt then sew on the binding.

The complete fidget quilt.

This project was so much fun, and the backing turned out well too. If you’re using this quilt-as-you-go method for a more traditional kind of quilt, you could use the same fabric for the backings of all the quilt sandwiches and borders, but I think the different backings on this project make it look really neat!

The backing of the completed fidget quilt.

Thanks for following along as I made this quilt-as-you-go fidget quilt. Some of the notions I used today such as the  UNIQUE QUILTING Clever Clips Small – 12 pcs, my UNIQUE QUILTING Wool Pressing Mat – 18″ x 24″ – Grey, Odif 505 Temporary Quilt Basting Adhesive Fabric Spray – 156g and my  OLISO M2Pro Mini Project Iron with Solemate, are ones  I use for almost every project  I make. The CLOVER 7812 Roll & Press and the CLOVER 240 – Fork Pins – .56mm, also helped to make this project successful. I hope you’re inspired to create your own fidget quilt and that perhaps you’ll think about donating one or more to your local branch of the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

This is part 5 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 4: 5 simple sewing notions make fun blocks for a fidget quilt

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