Quilting Before Sewing Projects

Typically as quilters, we piece our project first layer it with the batting and the backing, and then quilted. But today I wanna show you a couple of projects that you can do where you quilt first and then piece or sew. I was in a hurry for thanksgiving and realized I didn't have any placements. So I popped some fabric onto the long-arm machine, put in a fall type of design, quilted the fabric. And I did several all at once, took it off, cut my placemat out added some binding and low and behold instant placements. So this was a very quick and fun use of a quilted fabric. And we got many compliments of the placemats. So this is something that you can have a long armor dude. They can quilt a piece of fabric for you and then you can make your project, or you can even quilt it at home yourself if you're so inclined. Quilting first is another wonderful thing to do when you are doing any kind of bags or purse. I made this particular one for my new daughter-in-law for Christmas and did a photo transfer of her little dog on it. But before I even put the first piece together I quilted the fabric. It may be a little hard to see here with doggy paw prints over the whole piece of fabric. And then I cut out my pieces and sewed it together and when I'm on the inside of the bag I used the French seam to hide the edges. So there were no raw edges. And on the edge of the pocket I just put a piece of binding. So this is a wonderful way to finish a bag very quickly. It saves a lot of time and effort and gives a nice designer feel to it If you will. Another project I did quilting first was this little doggy jacket for my Cocker Spaniel Tootsie. And as you can see, the fabric was quilted with little dog bones, and then I cut the individual pieces and sew them together and then added my applique and embroidery as the last part of the project on the backside where I quilted it. I used a fleece, a plaid fleece to add just a little bit of warmth on those cold Colorado days that we have. So this is another wonderful way to do it and saves a lot of effort to go back and maneuver a finished piece through your sewing machine or through your quilting machine, by doing the quilting first. And finally another one that I made is this tree skirt. And instead of using cotton, I use satin, white bridal satin and I quilted it with snowflake pattern and I used a metallic gold thread on it. After it was finished, this was a large square approximately 50 by 50 when I first quilted it. And then when it's cut down, it is now 48 by 48. So once it was quilted and as you can see I had the backing fabric on there after I quilted it I cut it. I added the binding, cut the hole for the center of the tree and added the ties and we had a very nice tree skirt for the young newlyweds. So there are many projects that you can make with fabric that has been pre quilted. And when you're in a hurry and looking for something that is made by you this is an option that you should consider. And I think you'll be surprised how many things you can do when you quilt first before sewing.