Etsy Wedding Quilt 8: A Tip on Joining QAYG Rows

I finished another quilted throw for my Etsy customer's wedding!

Here's a closeup of the fabrics. I always like to see the full effect, as well as closeups. :) These are all vintage sheet fabrics from my shop:

Beige Roses
Brown Stripe
Woody Roses
Weathered Orange Posies
Blue Stripes

How to join QAYG sections without losing your sanity ...

If you've tried quilt-as-you-go before, you might have run into the same problem that I did: the seams can be so bulky that your machine won't sew through them. Sometimes it just skips the stitches, but sometimes it refuses to even put the needle through all that fabric.

After a few frustrating joins, I hit upon an idea that works wonderfully: alternating your joining strips. What do I mean? Take a look at this picture (the arrows show which way the joining strips face):

I simply alternate which direction my joining strips face. That way, I've halved the bulk of those seams and my sewing machine happily purrs right over them.

When I do this, I like to start joining my top row squares by making my joining strip face the first square. This means the sewing will show up on the first square, not the second. (You could make your joining strip face the second square if you like. It really doesn't matter.) Then, I make sure that the next joining strip faces the third square ... and on and on in that pattern.

However, you could make it a lot easier on yourself and simply make your first row's joining strips all face the left, while the next row's stripes face the right, then the next row's strips face the left, then the right ... and on and on. It's really a lot easier that way, but sometimes I do things the hard way for awhile before I figure it out. :)

I hope that helps you out!

I'm linking to ... Upcycled Awesome,