Back From Whence I Came

In the last few months, I had an epiphany. I like handwork again. When I first started making quilts, I machine pieced and hand quilted. But then, in 2010 I discovered the modern quilting movement. I found blogs and so much inspiration to create, with quilts and pouches and pillows. And everything could be done on the machine, which sped up the production time table and enabled me to produce more, faster.

 Fast forward to 2018. After many many projects, I took the class for this quilt. I wanted to learn some new techniques. When it was done, I decided to hand quilt it with Pearl Cotton since, to me, there were too many elements to machine quilt it without making myself crazy. I knew this could take awhile, but I decided it was the best idea. And Surprise! I loved doing it and it didn't actually take all that long to do. Just a few weeks, mostly while watching football. And when it was done, I found I really missed having hand sewing to do. So I began looking for things to hand sew in the evenings.

 This is the third quilt I have decided to hand stitch down the binding. For years now I have done it on the machine, and I still do for quilts that will have heavy use. But I am enjoying stitching so much, that I like doing this step again, after years of avoiding it.

 And, I enjoyed hand quilting with the Pearl Cotton so much I decided to do that again with this small lap quilt. I wanted it to stay as soft as possible.

 This is my pile of hand stitching stuff that sits next to my chair that I usually sit in of an evening. It has everything I need and keeps it together in that small wooden box.

I even added Miss N's latest dress to the pile after all the machine work was done. Sewing on buttons counts as hand work.

I have also done some embroidery work as well. I am really loving this new enthusiasm I have found for hand work. I hope it continues. Talk to you soon.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.