Thursday, November 29, 2012

GRAND D. QUILT AND HAND QUILTING THOUGHTS

This is my granddaughters quilt i am working on right now...i took it out of the frame to relax it a bit so it wouldn't get those ring marks on it and i wanted to see how the stencil is working that i am using to hand quilt it....

This quilt is inching along ok without mishaps so far...i hope i dont jinx it by mentioning that lol....my hands started cramping last night while quilting but i have been working on it now 3 days straight so i think they need a rest...

Here is a closeup of the detail of the quilting in the inner border...it is working just fine....when planning a quilted border i usually pick something that doesn't fit lol...but this one popped out at me when i began to think about quilting it....i didn't want a lot of 'fru-fru' for this one as it is very contempory...i was even thinking of drawing boxes here and there freehand but didn't think i could be consistent enough....

THOUGHTS ON HAND QUILTING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When i was first beginning this adventure of quilting was back in the 60's when i was accumulating lots of fabrics from sewing for my 2 girls....i had a huge box of scrap...my neighbor, an avid sewer encouraged me to make a quilt...so with her guidance i ventured into this world....i bet i picked her brain at least twice a week after that...lol

I learned a lot from her and from what i am told it was bred into me, as my grandmother was next to being a pro at quilting selling her quilts thoughout the county...she passed on when i was 5 so didn't get to know her long....i do have a big box of her quilting things though my aunt and mother passed onto me that i get out and go through now and then...

one of my early thoughts of hand quilting as you had to make sure the design was continueous without breaks all around the quilt...and another thought back then was no line shal cross another....so that played a role in getting me started...i was afraid i would make a mistake and they wouldn't fit right....now i am not afraid to be adventurous...lol...those thoughts came about from the older ladies at the time...when rules were strict and rigid about sewing...boy am i glad that changed lol....it has opened the door for  many new products and ideas for the sewer and quilter....
I will never be an expert quilter but i can do 18 stitches to an inch...now that is counting the top and bottom stitches...i am told that is how you count them...most of the time i average about 15....which i think it still ok...at least they dont look galloping along lol...

i have been teaching myself to machine quilt...not really good at it so i will stick to a lot of hand quilting along with learning new things so i am sure i will be adding little thoughts on hand quilting as i go along.....more later....

No comments:

Post a Comment