Joining Prequilted Panels

As the "A Team" used to say...I love it when a plan comes together.  

The Quilt Block Ladies came to our February meeting with over 20 more finished blocks.  I used the returned scraps and strips to finish up for a total of 42 blocks.

Leah Day recently posted a video tutorial of the technique that I used to put together the yellow string quilt that I made like this.

I made one change to this standard approach and I am very pleased with the results!  Basically, I did it backwards.  I cut the 1" wide strip of the backing fabric.

And I cut the 1.5" strip of the front binding fabric and pressed it in half, wrong sides together.  The light blue backing strip and dark blue binding strip are sewn on to the square at the same time.

Then the second block is attached to the other raw edge of the light blue backing strip.

The blocks then butt together with the two 1/4" seam allowances filling the 1/2" binding strip piece.  In the traditional approach this folded edge piece would be on the back and be hand stitched into place.

But instead, I top-stitched this in place right on the edge.

Then I top-stitched the other side of the binding piece also.

The top stitching looks nice and tidy on the top, and the back doesn't look too bad.

Now I'm joining pairs, then making 4 square sections then finally into 3 long strips for the final joining.