DECO Summer Sewalong - WEEK 4

August 3, 2026

Are you ready to see your quilt come to life? This week is assembly week!

Before we start assembly, I love laying out my quilt to see it all come together! If you haven't done that yet, now is the perfect opportunity! Snap a pic or two to celebrate as well!

Deco Diamonds: Papers will stay IN for assembly! Page 20 will help you figure out how to line everything up correctly when you add sashing and join your blocks.

Once you have your quilt assembled, give it a good press (from the fabric side, so you don't get ink on your iron) and then take out ALL the papers! Scroll to the bottom of the page to see what we can plan ahead for quilting!

Deco Glam: Since we are dealing with large curves here, ALL the papers need to be removed before we assemble. Then find the appropriate page for your size to start assembly.

Are you afraid of curves? Don’t be!

You’ve already mastered some smaller curved pieces, now the gentle curves of the fans will be a piece of cake. Take the time to carefully read through the tips in the assembly section for each size. It explains in detail how to master those curves. I also have a complementary Instagram video that shows you how I do it, if you’re having trouble visualizing the steps.

The biggest tips that I can’t stress enough, are:

1) Use lots of pins! Pin from the back of the fans, so you can see where to pin down your seam allowances.

2) Sew from the C-color side, to avoid puckering on the bottom that you won’t be able to see if your C fabric side is down.

3) Take out pins before sewing over them! For your safety. Especially if you are sewing from the C-color side, which means that you won't see the needles as well, because they are on the back side.

It’s amazing to see your quilt come together! It’s a small price to pay to spend a lot of time pinning, isn’t it 😉

BONUS: Plan your quilting for next week!

Think about what kind of batting, backing and quilting thread you may want to use. This week, I want to spend a minute to talk about BATTING.

I highly recommend black batting for these quilts, if you're using black or dark fabric for your background fabric. Because our seams are pressed to the side with our FPP pieces, all the dark pieces in the seam allowance and rogue fraying threads will become absolutely invisible with black fabric! And as a bonus, a lighter batting won’t “beard” through the front when washed or dried.

Quilter's Dream Batting has an awesome black poly batting that I've used for both of my darker Deco Glam samples seen above, my "Mocha Glam" and the "Emerald" colorway cover quilt! For my Eras Tour inspired quilt, which has a medium purple as a background, I'm using an absolutely dreamy, natural white colored bamboo batting by Quilter's Dream. It's so incredibly soft and drapey. Perfect for a summer quilt 😍 Want to see all the options Quilter's Dream offers? Check out their website or find them in your local quilt shop.