Friday, October 24, 2014

Hand quilting

I really like hand work.  It's soothing.  Recently I've been hand quilting with size 8 Pearl Cotton.  The stitches are on the big side but I like how they look.  Even when I used to struggle to make my stitches tiny, I secretly liked them best when they were bigger.

First I machine stitch around the blocks (stitch in the ditch).   Then I hand quilt the inner lines of the blocks. The blocks are 10 inches by 16 inches so the machine stitching is enough hold things in place.  No quilting hoops or basting are needed for the hand quilting.

For this quilt I am using Artfabric hand dyed variegated thread.  I like it a lot.


3 comments:

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I like the way that looks. I always encouraged my hand quilter students to do what you are doing, ditch quilt the framework and then put their hand quilting where it would be seen.

Anonymous said...

love the stitches, donaleen! it adds a very nice touch and like you, i like the stitches to be seen. why use beautiful thread if it's not going to be seen? julie

Anonymous said...

oh yeah, and a while back I read a study that said that handquilting is the hobby that lowers blood pressure the most. More than reading a book, even. My secret theory is that it's the sound of the thread pulling through the fabric. it makes a little "ssss" sound that is very soothing. Researchers can thank me later for figuring it out for them. ;-) julie