Tuesday, July 30, 2013

hand quilting like a tortoise - I'll get there eventually...

Do any of you hand quilters have trouble with your hands? Its distressing. I'm now plagued with tendon issues in my fingers, which means (among other things) I have to dole out my hand quilting more sparingly these days.

However I'm still moving slowly along on my Civil War Sampler. I'll do one or two blocks a week, only quilting for 30 minutes or so at one time. I'm quilting these pretty sparsely and really, I think that's all they need anyway.

This is one of the setting blocks:



Simple quilting around the flag:


 Remember, I already machine quilted in the ditch between the blocks, so that makes it much easier, and hugely faster!


 Some ditch quilting above, and a little where it shows, 
and a peek of the border



This one, above, needed a little more detail.



Here's Lincoln, also demanding a bit more detail.



Back to sparse. There's a tiny bit of detail in the center, if you have a nice big screen with good resolution, you might see it.

These have been a lot of fun to quilt, as for the exception of the setting blocks, each one is different. I'm about 2/3 or 3/4 (?) of the way through it. My goal is to have it ready to hang at our guild quilt show in Feb.

Other news:  I just discovered I've been pinned! Check out The Quilt Cupboard for some very cool quilts, including a couple of mine!

Meanwhile, I should have a finished top to show in a few days, so stay tuned!

love,
Sandy

4 comments:

  1. Your hand quilting is wonderful Sandy! Enlarging the photos really shows it well! Love your fabrics... especially the blue prints. You've been pinned! So cool!

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  2. Your hand quilting is so beautiful! I'm sorry to read about your tendon problems and I hope you are able to find a balance so you can continue what you love (and are obviously very talented at!).

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  3. So glad you can still hand quilt. Your stitching is wonderful, making the blocks really shine.:)

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  4. Lovely handwork. I set a timer when I hand quilt. It reminds me to flex my hands and do some exercises...including getting up and moving all of me ;-) Not just my hands...
    Keep on stitching!

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