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.

A Friday Update

So I said I would show you what is going on with my Penny Sampler Quilt. I finished piecing it in December and got it pin basted. I am hand quilting it with big stitches in Pearl cotton size 12. There were just too many elements for me to wrap my head around doing it on the machine, even though it's faster that way. I mean, it took me 12 months to make, why rush the quilting.

 I took the quilt out back in the shade to try and get good shots of the stitching. I am using many different colors of Pearl Cotton. I am letting each section speak to me and trying to give it what it needs. I feel like so far, some success and some, not as much. But I am enjoying the process.

 Some are pretty easy to figure out, but others I keep looking at and I got nothing! It will come in time I hope. The steam on this cup is one of the ones I really like.

 Some stitching is hard to see with the camera. There is stitching around the petals in this flower block, but they don't show too much.

So pretty much that's it for now. I will be working on this for the next few days, and new machine sewing until our guest leaves next week. I hope you have a great weekend. Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. It's not a finish, but I am celebrating anyway.

The Times They Are A'Changing

I have been a quilter since about 1991. Well, let's say I have been quilting since then. I didn't consider myself a quilter until about 1994 when I had gotten more into it and had tried more sewing and quilting. This has been an interesting journey my friends.

I have made probably almost 200 quilts during that time. I did not document all of them, but enough to get a rough count. When I first started quilting I learned by reading books about it. I finally took a class on how to quilt properly in about 1995. Machine quilting wasn't even on my radar at that point.

I bought myself a subscription to Quilters Newsletter, which I kept for 10 years. I finally saw that they were changing in a way that I was not, so I stopped. I have not missed it, as I have grown and changed as a quilter myself.

During much of this time I hand quilted. In my hand quilting hey day, I even built a hand quilting frame from a kit I bought through Quilters Newsletter. I did quilt several large quilts on it during that time. Then came the computer age of quilting for me.

I discovered blogs. I discovered on line fabric shopping. I fell in love with quilting all over again, and started this blog in 2011. I did a few on line quilt alongs. When my job changed in 2010 I suddenly had more time to quilt and I threw myself into it with happy abandon. I became very prolific and really learned how to machine quilt on a domestic machine. I bought a Bernina Quilters Edition.

I found endless inspiration on line. I found Flickr and had my own on line bee for 3 years. Now, things for me are changing again. I am getting ready to retire and am moving and down-sizing. I am culling and sorting. I will never stop quilting, but I am getting rid of stuff I no longer use.  This is the strange thing to me, even with all the good stuff I have, no one wants most of it.

I had a yard sale and sold very little. So, I donated almost 100 books to the thrift store for them to sell. It is local and benefits our schools. I guess, like me, most quilters find what they need on line now and don't need to encumber themselves with lots of books. I only kept about 2 dozen of my newest ones.

No one wanted all my back issues of Quilters Newsletter either, so I sadly threw them in the recycling bin. And the quilting frame sits here in pieces with the directions and small pieces in a zip bag, hoping and waiting for someone to take it and use it. I almost had a taker, but she didn't have enough space for it.

So my craft has changed so much that the old tools are no longer wanted or needed I guess. That makes me a little sad. But change is necessary for growth. So I will donate the quilting fame too. Maybe someone will buy it or maybe not. I will never know. Back to packing and culling. I will talk to you soon.

This Qulter's Journey, part 3

The next step on my quilting journey was to build a quilting frame for hand quilting. In those days (early 90's) all the quilting magazines had advertisements for quilting frames. Machine quilting hadn't really taken off yet. Most home quilting was still done by hand.  I loved the idea of having a quilt on a frame where I could sit down and take a few stitches whenever I had time.

They were pretty expensive, upwards of $300. I found one that would sell you the plans to build a frame and they sent you the plans and hardware. You bought the wood and the metal roller bars at the hardware store. So we did. My hubby helped me build and assemble it.  I think I quilted two quilts on it, and had this one on the frame when I had to take it apart and store it.

 The applique sections were made of old denim jeans and reds and yellow quilting cottons. They were fused on and zigzagged around. I loved the idea of recycling the old jeans.

 The star blocks were pieced, mostly from scraps left from earlier projects. I still had a very romanticized view of what a quilt should be. Scrappy was it.

 The pattern is in an old issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. I have about 10 years worth, and haven't tried to find it yet.  I started hand quilting it in feathers  in all the white spaces.

 The whole thing is, I think queen size. It wouldn't all fit on the frame, so it is in two pieces. One big chunk and one smaller chunk.

 Here you can kind of see some of the quilting. My amateurish attempt at quilting feathers.

 I still love the look of this quilt and so much of the work is done on it, I know I should finish it. But I am stumped as to how. I already have an Irish Chain that I have been hand quilting on for about 5 years now and I just don't see this one happening.

If you have any ideas for me about how I can get this done, please, let me hear your ideas. For now, that is all from my quilting journey. I have lots more to say and show you. Talk to you soon.