Assembling a Quilt Top

My Ocean Waves quilt is almost too big for my design wall, so I’m working on it quarter sections.  This is the 3rd section up on the wall last night.

Each of these blocks has to be turned in the right way to make the pattern show up.  Everyone has their favorite method for assembling a quilt top.  This is how I do mine.

First — I wrote numbers on my flower head pins.

These are what keep my blocks in order.  At the design wall, I put pin #1 in the top left corner of the first block.

I then flip the second block over the first and insert a pin in the seam to hold them together until I get to the sewing machine.

Flower pin #2 goes in the next block, the following block is flipped over and pinned as above.  If you have an odd # of blocks it gets a flower pin the top left corner. Take all the blocks to the sewing machine and pin if desired.  I have tons of seams which are not nesting well so lots of pins.

Sew the seams.  Then sew the pairs together, remembering the flower pin is in the top left corner of the block/section.  Once all the sections are sewn together press.  Do not take pin #1 out of the row so you know how to put the row back on the design wall.

Since I’m only working with half the quilt, I know the half block goes on the left — for this quarter — but when I was working on the log cabin it was easy to get the row turned upside down.

Repeat with each row.  Then sew the rows together.  If you are concerned about the rows falling off the wall, exchange the #1 pin marking the top left corner of the block with a number pin with the correct row number.  Once it’s time to sew the rows together do them in pairs, then sew the pairs together.

To get an idea of working in quarter sections, here are a couple more pictures.  The section on the left is sewn together, and I’m still piecing the blocks on the right.

The top half sewn together.

I’ll finish up this section, then finish piecing the 4th section.  I’ll sew the “short” vertical seam between the sections and then only have the one long horizontal seam to sew.

If you struggle with quilt assembly, I hope this post helps you — or at least gives you some ideas to incorporate in your quilt assembly.  Feel free to ask questions if I need to clarify something.