Hey everyone! Today you're going to look inside the Quilt As You Go Handbook and see how to use its 62 pages as your road map for a whole QISS quilt.
What is the Quilt As You Go Handbook, in plain words?
It is the how-to book for the QISS system. QISS stands for Quilting Is Sew Simple.
Pauline Rogers wrote it at Pauline's Quilters World in Australia. She created QISS to solve one big frustration. Getting a large quilt through a home machine.
Her answer is simple. You quilt one block at a time. Then you join the finished blocks.
The handbook lays that path out in order. Vivid color photos. Step-by-step instructions in plain language, written to be easy to understand.
What will you find inside the 62 pages?
Think of the book in three parts. Sandwich. Quilting. Joining.
Part one is the block sandwich. Backing wrong side up. Batting in the middle. Top right side up. Press with a hot, dry iron until the layers fuse. Keep the block flat while it cools.
Pauline's classes use Hobbs double-sided fusible batting for that sandwich. Fusing medium on both sides holds all three layers steady. Class-size layers are 12½ by 15½ inches. That size fits any home machine. We walk through the press step by step in Building the QISS Block Sandwich: Press, Fuse, Quilt.
Part two is quilting the block. Feed dogs up. Open-toe appliqué foot on the machine, not a free-motion foot. Ease off your presser-foot pressure. Templates guide a real design straight onto the block. No marking pens needed for the main design. No freehand drawing needed either.
Part three is joining. This is where the handbook earns its keep. It details both joining methods, start to finish, with photos you can check mid-stitch.
How do the two joining methods fit into the road map?
The handbook teaches two methods. Between the Blocks and Back to Back.
Between the Blocks joins blocks with a sashing strip between them. That sashing carries its own thin batting, cut slightly smaller than the finished size. Less bulk. Less distortion.
The cutting math repeats. Cut sashing fabric twice the finished width. A 2 inch finished sashing starts 4 inches wide. Fold it with the Sasher that matches the finished size.
Back to Back joins blocks directly, edge to edge. No sashing strip in between. The design flows straight across.
We did the deep dive on both joins in Between the Blocks vs Back to Back: The Two QAYG Joining Methods. For the strips themselves, read Mastering QISS Sashing alongside this book.
How do I actually use this book at the table?
Here is what I use, and why. I keep my copy open at the table. Not on a shelf.
Before I start, I read just the section for the step I am on. Sandwich day, the sandwich pages. Joining day, the joining pages. I do not try to memorize 62 pages.
When a join looks off, I check the photos before I reach for the seam ripper. Nine times out of 10, I skipped a small step. Just like that, found and fixed. My early mistake was rushing the press. Slow, steady iron. That was the fix.
Bookmark the method you chose. Flip back as often as you need. We're not reinventing the wheel here.
Who does this handbook help most?
It helps three kinds of quilters, in my book.
- Brand-new to QAYG. The whole order of work in one place, so block two is calmer than block one.
- Confident piecers, new to quilting your own tops. You know how to sew blocks. This shows you how to finish them yourself.
- Returning QISS quilters. You know one joining method well. Learning the second one is straightforward here.
Start with four practice blocks. Even stitches. Good control. Then commit to the real quilt. Completely up to you which method you try first.
And here is the permission part, folks. Your first joined row does not have to be perfect. You're your own worst critic. Take your time. It's not a race. Check the photo. Ease the layers. Stitch it steady. If I can do this, y'all can do it.
Thanks for learning along with us. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Shop the Quilt As You Go Handbook at Linda's Electric Quilters.
For the batting at the heart of every block sandwich, see the Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Fusible Batting Package at Linda's Electric Quilters.
Browse the whole line in our QISS — Quilting Is Sew Simple collection at Linda's Electric Quilters.
