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Monday, September 30, 2013

A HAND QUILTER IS BORN


It's finished!



This weekend I was able to put the 
finishing touches (AKA...binding)
on my mini chevron quilt.

It's not perfect, 
but I LOVE it!
The beginning stitches are shorter than the ending stitches.
I obsessed over it...but I let it go.




 I have always loved hand projects. My 1st adventure into the
"sewing world" was a tiny cross stitch of a baby blue whale,
which BTW came out looking like a blueberry!...a BLUEBERRY!

Anyway, 
I think that I mentioned that this is one of my all time
favorite quilting books over HERE:




As a hand quilting novice,
I did a quick Internet search to gain more information/confidence.
Here are my favorite hand quilting sites:

1. Sarah Fielke (yep, she is the co-author of my inspiration book).
She has an Awesome  free Craftsy video on her site
which is UBER helpful! I know because I watched over & over 100 times
and I'm surprised that I didn't cause the site to crash.

2. Molly Flanders is a novice hand quilter's inspiration!
Take a look and you will see what I mean.

3. Trish of Notes of Sincerity also has great hand quilting tips.


My thoughts on hand quilting

1. Thread:

For this project, I used Valdani Thread because it is the only thing that I had
on hand at the time. I do have Comso thread (which I love for my stitchery projects)
but I didn't have a color that would match.

I haven't washed the mini quilt yet. I know that the thread is colorfast, but I 
just wanted to be sure and photograph my prized project
before I washed it...just in case...something were to happen.

2 Thimble:

I learned that hand quilting is all about the thimble. Not just any thimble...
but a proper fitting thimble. I bought this thimble on a whim (posted HERE)
and I love it.

It fits properly on my finger and it doesn't slip off. It also allows me to have the perfect
rocking motion for hand quilting.
It was slow going at first...like 6 stitches per hour, but once
 I got used to the thimble (and let go of my my stitch length obsession)
I was hooked!

3. Mixing Quilting Styles

For this project, I mixed machine quilting with hand quilting.
This is something that I never thought that I would do, but as you can see/read...I am in love!
I love it so much that if I had the time, I would do this on all of my quilts.


I love how the red stitches "pop".

So there you have it...another hand quilter is B-O-R-N!

Until Next Time,,,Happy Quilting

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4 comments:

  1. I have never been able to get the rocking motion down and use the thimble which BTW I have the same thimble too;) I hand quilt freely...just needle and thread. The red in your work is fabulous!! Excellent job Stefanie!

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  2. I love how they look mixed, the hand and machine quilting. Each adds something different to the quilt. I have been looking for a project to try hand quilting on, I think you have inspired me!

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  3. I've never hand quilted but am willing to try it on a small piece. Thanks for sharing some links. I will check them out.

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  4. I like the look of mixing the two quilting techniques. I have done it a few times on a small projects. You are an inspiration!

    ReplyDelete