Lap Quilt: Quilt-as-you-go (E)

Last year, the Santa4Seniors project was for 47 residents. There was a group of six people and scores of contributors who worked together to pull off that magical Christmas. This year, many of the elves are re-focused on other projects and our family member has moved to a smaller group home with only five residents. Santa4Seniors is only making a few lap quilts this year.


The first lap quilt is a simple "quilt-as-you-go" project. The individual likes birds/wildlife and bright colors so I choose 1.5 yards of a novelty hummingbird print with butterflies and vivid colors. To highlight the vivid jewel tones, I selected four colors from the print and got 1/3 yard of each for additional strips and to use for binding. The back is blue flannel from my stash and I used a natural cotton batting.

My inspiration, or helpful tips, came from the following:

• Preparing the quilt sandwich: Pressing, stretching and safety pin basting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-SC63erclc

• Quilt-as-you-go strip quilt:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93WJTVfOGy0&t=313s

Start by ironing the backing fabric thoroughly. Then I spread the batting material on a large work surface (my kitchen island works well for this) and smoothed the backing fabric (flannel) over the batting. Then I ironed it again (see "preparing the quilt sandwich" video link above). 

I gently flipped the backing and batting over, smoothed from the center out to the sides and secured with safety pins (right picture) as the video suggested. I left the center few inches few of pins in order to mark the center using chalk pencil. I made two parallel lines 5.5 inches apart (left picture) to show where my first strip would go and secured with pins.

In the quilt-as-you-go video above, 3.5 inch strips are used. For this lap quilt, I used 5.5 inch strips of the hummingbird fabric, separated by 3.5 inch strips of the jewel-tone fabrics.

On one side of the center strip, I added the next strip face-down and matched edges. This would be my first quarter-inch seam. After each seam is sewn, open the seam and press. Add the next strip in the same manner.

Even though strips are cut with a ruler and rotary cutter and the seam is carefully sewn, there can be slight variations in the width of each finished strip. That slight variance can multiple as additional strips are added. For added measure, I use my long template ruler to measure each strips against the seam of the previously added strip to assure each strip is as straight as possible.

Finish one side of the quilt, then turn and add strips to the other side of the quilt.

Because the strips were a little wider, I added some free motion quilting to each strip using a walking foot. The print wider strips have five-to-six randomly curved lines and the jewel-tone strips have two large curved lines that intersect. None of the quilting is anywhere near symmetrical. It's done in matching thread and meant only to make the quilt more durable for washing and add a little subtle interest.

The binding is a combination of 2.5 inch strips from the jewel-toned fabrics, joined together and folded-in-half and pressed. The binding was added using a walking foot to make 1/4 inch seam around the front of the quilt (once trimmed to size) and then hand-stitched on the back-side.

Total time: Approximately 8 hours