How are your Rainbow Weave quilt blocks coming along? Now it’s time to sew them together to complete the quilt top. You’ll want to refer to the quilt top assembly diagram in the pattern often to ensure proper block placement based on color.

The easiest way to sew this quilt top together it to first sew all of the same colored blocks into long columns (aka vertical rows), and then join the columns together to complete the quilt top.

Notice that there is one of each colored block that has a dark gray strip across the top. This is for the top block of each column so that it appears that the design is “floating” on the dark gray background.

When joining two blocks together, don’t worry if the print doesn’t like up exactly like in the pair of purple blocks below. Because these are busy prints, you’ll still get the woven effect as long as your seams line up well.

In the turquoise pair, the join is not as obvious because of the print.

Not all of the prints will have obvious joins, so let the seams fall where they may and the overall design will still look great.

The easiest way to sew the rows together is to sew them into pairs, then sew the pairs into larger units: 1 set of 3 blocks and 2 sets of 4 blocks. Then sew the sets into each row by color.

Be sure to use lots of pins to keep your rows straight and organized. In the photo below, the pin at the top is to keep that edge together while I pin the long row along the side. I like to pin perpendicular to the edges, and line up the seams. You can see that I use a lot of pins and this really helps with accuracy.

I also continue to press EVERY seam. I press all of the long seams open in addition to the individual block seams. The trick is to open the seam ahead of your iron with your fingers and don’t use steam so you won’t get burned. Here’s a short video showing how I press the seams open:

Because you are sewing long strips together, they have a tendency to bow or warp out of shape. To prevent this from happening, switch sewing directions each time you add a new row.

When you are finished sewing the quilt top, there will be a lot of seams left on the outside of the quilt that have a tendancy to split apart due to handling. To prevent this, do what I call a “Victory Lap” around your quilt: stay stitch the edges with a 1/8″ wide seam all the way around the perimeter of the quilt.

In the next step, we’ll do everyone’s LEAST favorite part of the process: basting! But not to worry, with my method, it’s not as hard as you think!

IMPORTANT LINKS

Click here to purchase the Rainbow Weave Quilt Kit
Click here to purchase yardage of the gray background fabrics
Click here to purchase additional Abstract Garden Quilt Fabric
Click here for links to the previous quilt along posts
Click here to share your progress in my Facebook group