Carolyn Forster takes us on a journey through the history and skill of the beloved, time-saving Quilt As You Go method.
Sometimes even for the most committed quilters, embarking on another big quilt, be it for yourself, friends, family or for donating, can seem a daunting task. All the piecing, then the layering and basting followed by the all the quilting can seem too much. But if you have ever heard the phrase “how do you eat an elephant?”, and the answer, “one bite at a time”, then you can use this philosophy in making a quilt.
There are many ways that you can Quilt As You Go (QAYG), making a quilt in lots of small sections, piecing and quilting, then moving onto the next section, before finally joining them together. No more sitting under a heap of fabric every time you want to quilt or trying to
push the cumbersome load under the sewing machine. No more leaving a quilt at home, not being able to take it with you to quilt on a trip or a group meeting. This way, you can be sewing different techniques in parallel in small manageable and portable sections, making the craft accessible to all, key features of QAYG.
Over the years, quiltmakers have developed ways to QAYG, we are not the first today by any means. This is not a new method. Stitchers and quilt makers have been thinking up ways to help them make their quilt making manageable, portable and accessible for many years, possibly many more than you would guess. This type of quilt has been around since at least 1856, with a wonderful example seen in the American Museum of Folk Art, New York, USA (see left).
This type of quilt became known as a ‘Potholder quilt’ and is characterized by patchwork blocks being stitched, quilted, often signed and bound before being sewn together to make one whole quilt. The quilts were sometimes friendship or presentation quilts, but a large number documented were made during the US Civil war (12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865).
These were made by the women to help raise funds or to donate to hospitals for the injured soldiers. They are a great example of a QAYG and friendship quilt all in one. The name is thought to have come from the custom of quilting and binding squares of fabric and batting to make an insulated pad to hold the handle of a pot, kettle or casserole, hence Potholder. It is not always easy to see historic examples of QAYG quilts, as often the construction method is not highlighted in documentation. The above museum quilt made no mention, and quilts that I have purchased over the years have all been done by guess work and peering at photos and
