Midweek Update

In the tale of the never-ending quilt-as-you-go project here at Little Penguin Quilts, there has been some progress!  I had been wanting to try figuring out how it was going to work to start connecting the rows of Patchwork Hearts that have been quilted.  You might remember that they look like this - 

The first three rows have been completely quilted, row 4 is halfway there, 

and row 5 is prepped for quilting, but yet to be started.

I purposely cut the batting and backing for each quite a bit wider than needed, thinking that I could use that overage to connect the rows.  I just needed to come up with a plan for how to do it, and that's what I've been working on the last few days.  

Here's how it's working:

I'm trimming the backing to 1.25 inches beyond the quilted section - that will be the sashing on the back that connects row 1 to row 2, and so on.

Trim the batting to 1 inch beyond the quilted section - that stays as the batting in between the quilted sections.

And I chose a white Grunge to be the front sashing that will show on the finished quilt - cutting strips of that that measure 2 x 60 inches (the width of each quilted strip).  It covers up all the connecting seams and the batting to finish the front!

I sewed the front sashing on to the top of row 2's quilting first.  Then trimmed the batting and backing and sewed row 2's back sashing onto the back of row 1 with the .25 inch seam allowance.  Because it's all the same backing, you really can hardly see that's been done!

After pressing that seam on the back, the batting is tucked up under the seam allowance, and the front sashing strip is pulled up and folded over to give the finished look on the front. 

I topstitched that down all the way across, added another line of quilting through the sashing, and voila!  The Patchwork Hearts quilt is 3/5 of the way to a finish!

Figuring all this out has given me a renewed enthusiasm for finishing this quilt - I just have to finish the quilting on rows 4 and 5.  I'm even starting to think about what would work for the binding!  It's getting there!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.