Baby Quilt: Scrappy Mountain Majesties

This is my version of a baby quilt using a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter.
I started like in the pattern with 8 1/2" squares. 32 colored fabrics and 32 plain white ones.The blocks finish 6" x 7 1/2" rectangle. I used her instructions for making the block. They can be found here: https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/scrappy-mountain-majesties.html

I chose a very different path for quilting. I wanted to quilt this baby quilt on my home machine. Through my guild I had signed up for a free motion quilting class. The last thing I need in my sewing room is another stack of sample blocks.

 This is why laid out the blocks and instead of piecing all of them into a quilt top pieced 8 of them into a row and quilted the quilt in 4 sections. Afterwards I pieced the sections together to complete the quilt.

On the back you can see the 4 rows. I used 2 different fabrics alternating them for the sections.
The trick was, that unlike "regular" quilt-as-you-go pieces with sashing pieces that connect the sections and cover the seams on both, front and back of the quilt, a different technique is used here.

Below a step by step guide:

Don't piece the whole quilt top together, instead piece the sections into rows. Layer each section individually with batting and backing, I used Quilters Select Free Fuse instead of pins, BoNash, would be a similar product. Backing fabrics and batting should be bigger that the sections for the top.

Tread machine top and bottom with water soluable thread. Stitch 1/4" inside along the edge. Each sections that will be attached to another section, can now be trimmed back. I used a special ruler for this task. (Trimmer by George 2.0, available at www.hoopsisters.com). That ruler has an unique feature. A metal "lip" that allows the top fabric to be pushed/folded back and allows you to only trim the backing and batting. Only do this on edges that will connect to another section, not along the edge of the quilt, not on areas that will be covered with binding.

Change thread to what you like to use and quilt sections. It also works great as a way to test new quilting patterns or instead of quilt sandwiches for a class.

Once all sections are quilted using a 1/4" seam allowance sew the seams. Sew only the top fabric. Backing and batting are trimed back. Prepare fabric strips. Left-over fabric works great. Strips need to be 1 1/2" to 2" wide, fold in half, open, fold edges to the center. Use Elmers Washable School Glue and apply glue over the joint. Cover with strips, hiding the joined sections. Everything should be completely flat. I like to hand-stitch the strips down.

Join all sections like this. Trim back top, bottom and sides and prepare quilt for binding. Bind quilt.. The last 3 pictures show me using the technique on another quilt.

 1/4" stitched with water-soluable thread

 Top fabric needs to be fold back, because I will need it to connect the sections. Only backing and batting get trimmed back to the stitching line.

Using the special ruler to trim.

The advantage of this technique: You can quilt a big quilt on your home machine without wrestling with all the bulk and still not have any visible joining strips on the front.