Pieced And Quilted, All At Once...

I found a template/ruler tool called the Batting Buddy at the Quilt and Needle Arts Extravaganza last month and decided to give it a try. It is manufactured by Prairie Sky Quilting and it's the tool that is used for their "Fun and Done" line of patterns. The main reason that I bought the tool, and decided to give it a try without the pattern, is because I have a cupboard full of batting scraps and a huge tub of leftover fabric trimmings from my novelty quilts that I thought I could use for a trial project. I decided to "wing it" for myself and see what I could come up with. I have posted, below, a photo collage of the steps involved. The actual "Batting Buddy" is a two-part template, the square for cutting the batting is the interior portion, and the window frame outer portion is for cutting out the backing squares. These two pieces nest together perfectly. I went about the task of cutting a stack of batting squares and an equal number of backing pieces. I pulled out the largest pieces from my novelty bin and pressed them before cutting them up into 2" strips, then I divided those into light and dark piles. The next step is the most important, and where the Batting Buddy really helps keep things straight and square. Using the outer, picture frame portion of the template, place and center that over a backing square (wrong side up) and position a batting square in the open portion. Pin the batting in place and remove the frame. The batting is now perfectly centered, leaving an even margin all around the edge for turning to the front side later. The strips can be placed over the batting at this point, sewn and flipped, until the batting is completely covered. Voilà, the quilting is accomplished as the blocks are made! At this point I turned the sewn block over and, carefully folding the back out of the way, trimmed the strip edges even with the batting edge. Then, placing the blocks back to back I stitched exactly along the batting edge. The raw backing edges are now on the front side and can be folded, pressed and topstitched, becoming the "sashing". Ultimately, these edges will form the binding around the outside after the rows are joined the following the same procedure. It was fun, figuring it out along the way, but I would definitely recommend going to the website and looking through the many "Fun and Done" patterns. My way worked, but I'm sure there are shortcuts that would happily facilitate the route to completion!
Take your time and look through the steps depicted here. As far as the play quilt goes, I'm sure my grandson will enjoy playing on it, I know that I had a grand time combing through the scraps!

Life is Good!