My local quilt group, Piecemakers, is running a mystery quilt. I was happy to participate in it - I'm always up for a challenge. However, it's quilt-as-you-go, and I have decided I hate q-a-y-g. Last time there was a q-a-y-g option I didn't take it, and I should have stuck to my guns on this one. Here are my blocks partly joined together.
I know the advantages of q-a-y-g, which are that you can use up oddments of wadding (true) and backing (true) and that you don't have to wrestle with a whole quilt, just quilt a block at a time (true).
But the disadvantages outweigh these (for me).
Oddments of wadding can be joined to make a whole quilt back (true), and so can backing pieces
(true). You have to be very accurate with your sizing with q-a-y-g, whereas ordinary quilt blocks can be fudged slightly (true) and all that fiddling about with 1" and 1 1/2" pieces of sashing is annoying (true) and then the endless slip-stitching, particularly on the border sections, is very tedious (true). 
Add to that the fact that I don't really like sashing and quite enjoy quilting, and you have a recipe for dissatisfaction! I know you should never say never, but I don't intend to do q-a-y-g ever again!
4 comments:
Been there and made that declaration too..I've vowed off q-a-y-g too!
Oh so funny! But not for you I'm sure. I've always had the sneaking suspicion that qayg was not for me either. Now I will be even more wary!
If you don't quilt to the edges you can sew the blocks together normally, cut the batting with scissors so it meets edge to edge and then fold one edge of backing over the other and hand sew the backing down. That's how I do it, am not a fan of QAYG though.
But your blocks are beautiful and I agree with you about the sashing, those blocks don't need it.
Oh! and I love q-a-y-g so much. We often use it in our group when making quilts for charity where we use a lot of orphan blocks. Having the sashings helps to unify and make it all one happy family. For me, the only negative is that the sashings are very fabric-greedy
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