Octadot QAL Part 5: Assembly

We’re almost there! Today is the final day of sewing in the Octadot QAL. We will be sewing the rows together using long sashing strips.

Previous blog posts in the Octadot QAL

Assembly

Are you ready to finish your quilt top? Here we go! Let’s start with an overview of where the sashing strips will go. We need the following strips:

A: 1 × 6”
B: 1 × 16”
C: 1 × 26”
D: 1 × 36”
E: 1 × 46”
F: 1 × 56” (cut twice)
G: 1 × 52”
H: 1 × 42”
I: 1 × 32”
J: 1 × 22”
K: 1 × 12”

Start in one of the corners, I started in the bottom corner first. Take the corner piece and the first row. For the bottom corner you will need sashing K, 1×12″. That should look something like this.

Sew the sashing strip one of the rows.

Place the rows right sides together. Now it’s time to line them up. To line up the rows I fold back the top row to check on the position of the short sashing.

Make sure the short sashing from both rows are aligned. This is how you know your row is centred.

And there we have our first row sewn together!

This is how my seams look at the back. I decided to press all seams open for this quilt. It looks a little wonky, but it turned out just fine when the whole quilt was sewn together.

Continue Sewing the top together row by row. I started in both corners. The F strips were the final strips I sewed into the quilt to join the two halves.

Don’t worry too much about the pieces of sashing that stick out on the quilt top. You can either trim them now and make square up your quilt top. Or you could leave it as it is and trim them when you trim the complete quilt after quilting.

Quilting

After you complete the quilt top it’s time to quilt your quilt! I used two different all over patterns for the Octadot quilts.

Leaves

I used a organic all over pattern for my mini quilt. This is a quilt pattern that was included in the pattern database of Big Q (my Bernina Q24 + Q-matic).

Since this quilt is all straight lines, I thought an organic pattern might work. And it did! I really like how it turned out.

Straight Lines

For the bigger quilt I designed a straight line quilt pattern for Big Q. Straight lines, but with some rounded corners between them.

Binding

Then the final step in making our quilt. The binding! Is that something you love to so? Or do you have a ‘only need binding pile’ just like me?

For this quilt I attached the binding to the front of the quilt by machine. And hand stitched it to the back.

I love how those little stitches almost create that invisible look on the binding.

Thank you!

It has been wonderful quilting together with all of you. Thank you so much for joining the Octadot QAL. Enjoy the final steps in making your Octadot quilt. I would love to see your quilt. Feel free to email them to me ([email protected]) or tag me on Instagram @Sugaridoo.

Happy quilting!
Irene