Marguerita McManus - Quilt As You Go Reimagined

In this book

we show you four quilt patterns and instructions that are jumping off points in terms of design. Each quilt uses pre-cut fabrics, which can easily be created yourself using scraps, yardage or upcycled fabrics. The layouts are adaptable and we show you some adaptations, and best of all, the quilts are reversible!

You will learn our very popular method of quilt-as-you-go that you can adapt to fit your style. The only rule here is to do what makes you happy with your quilts.

Throughout the book, youll read I (from Marguerita, who does the writing), or we when we know that there are two opinions and we actually agree on a point. Everything is really from both of us unless otherwise stated.

On our website

we regularly post photos of gorgeous quilts made by ourselves and others using instructions from our books, including this one. Wed love it if youd take a look.

Youll see our other books, and you can see how our quilt-as-you-go technique has grown from one book to three (so far...) with more in the works.

Sometimes well offer a free pattern or post a video of an updated pattern or technique, and if theres something in the book that is confusing to many people, well post a video that explains it better and shows what we are trying to convey.

You will also occasionally see, if you read our blog, pictures of the kids, bunnies, garden, home improvement projects and places in our travels.

Please email me

if you have any problems or issues with this book and I will do my utmost to help you. Just send a message to MMQuilts@gmail.com

{ for Audrey and Violet Raffuse }

Our thanks to Laura McDonell, friend, photographer and idea tester, for sharing her projects, happily trying out whatever wild quilting projects we show her and for always being an enthusiastic supporter.

What is QuiltAsYouGo?

A quilt is usually three layers of materials, joined together with threads, buttons or yarn ties. The inner layer is often a form of lofted batting, but in warmer climates, this can be left out or a thin layer of flannel might be used.

The process of joining the three layers is called quilting when it is done with threadeither by hand or by sewing machine.

What, then, is quiltasyougo?

When a quilt topthe pretty designed and pieced layeris made, historically ,it was put on a frame, along with the backing and the inner batting, and hand quilted, either by a single woman or in a group setting, called a quilting bee.

More recently quilt makers have used safety pins to join the layers temporarily, and they have done the quilting on their home sewing machines. It can be a struggle, however, to manage all three layers of a large quilt as it is being quilted.

Quiltasyougo is the process of making the quilt top in small squares or sections and then layering those pieces for quiltingsmall and easy! The quilted sections are then joined together. This book uses a very popular joining method that has been reimagined for new, modernlooking quilts.

Traditional quilt-as-you-go has quite visible joining strips and is easily identifiable once you know the technique. The reinvented methods in this book eliminates those tell tale signs, leaving your eye to focus on the fabrics and bold design, not the joining strips. It also allows a far greater range of design options for your quilts.

A trend in sewing machine quilting has been the art of quilting intricate designs onto the blocks and quilt. This book returns to the basics and focuses instead on simplicity in quiltingstraight lines, basic grids and slight curvesfor a clean look that shows off the fabrics, not the quilting.

Another trend in quilting is precision and perfection of design. This book takes the opposite philosophy and focuses on individual style and expression, not perfection. Consistency in sewing is our only requestand even that is not a requirement. Weve broken every rule in quilting over the years and loved it. We invite you to do so too, and make your quilts your way.

Have you quilted with us before?

If you are familiar with our first book, Crazy Shortcut Quilts , youll find that the basic block sizes with these quilts are similar, but the method for making the blocks is very different. The joining process (called sashing in that first book) is very different in how it is created and used. In fact, each quilt in this book has a slightly different way of joining/sashing we think youre going to love it!

In addition to fat quarters (pre-cut 18 x 22 squares), the quilts in this book use jelly rolls (pre-cut 2 strips), charm packs (pre-cut 5 squares) and yardage. Instead of quilting using decorative stitches, this book focuses on straight stitcheswhich is not to say that you cant use your decorative stitches where we use straight stitches! These are your quiltsquilt them any way you wish!

Whether you have quilted with us before or not, I encourage you to watch our numerous free videos. We have tutorials on all kinds of quiltingrelated subjects, and you get to see us better in person as we make our quilts or share ideas and techniques. The Resources page at the end of this book has links to our website and videos, and we would both love it if you would visit our sites and leave us a note or message. We would love to see your finished quilts, too, if you would like to share them with us.

Before you begin...

There are four quilts in this book, each using different techniques; however, the quilts have several common components because you are making a whole quilt , not just a quilt top. Therefore we refer you to the layering or the quilting section of the book while describing each quilt, because those processes are generally the same for all the quilts. Again, if youre new to the techniques or you want to understand the whole process before beginning, select a quilt to read about and follow the references to the common chapters for the layering, quilting, joining and binding.

Know, too, that some of the quilt designs have alternative suggestions, offering you even more variety, so please read the entire chapter for each quilt before buying or cutting your fabrics.

Rotary Cutting

Please read and follow the safety instructions and proper handling of your cutter. NEVER leave the blade open after cutting, not for a second, and please store your cutter where children cant get their hands on it.

Fabric Preparation

For fabric preparation, we weigh in on both sides of the pre-washing issue with Sarah generally preferring to pre-wash and Marguerita usually avoiding it at all costs. We both recommend consistency, so if you are going to pre-wash your fabrics we recommend pre-washing them all no matter the size (charms, fat quarters or yardage) for the top, the joining strips and the back of your quilt.