Hourglass Medallion Nearly Done

Some of you may remember the countless pictures I posted of this quilt when I was in the process of making it. I was sure you were all sick of looking at it. I was sick of looking at it.  So I promised I wouldn't show it again until it was done.

That was four years ago.

 No, its not "done" .. but I'm done with the quilting, anyways.

At the time I finished the top, my intent was to machine quilt it. However the going was really slow, and I had too much difficulty going smoothly around those tight curves. The thought of sitting at my machine for as long as it would take to do it was very depressing, especially considering the shaky results I was likely to end up with. So I thought, hell with it, I'll just hand quilt it. Much more relaxing, and a successful result would be guaranteed.

 (ps that's my teddy bear in the background, who's in the 

process of getting new hands, feet and ears.)

I dove into the quilting process with great enthusiasm, which went along great for awhile. But eventually it stalled, due to ongoing tendon issues, and, frankly, boredom with the tedium of marking and quilting all those little curvy things.

When my hands were up to it, there might be another newer project that was more exciting to work on.

Like a doll quilt.

Or this.

This was another one that was intended to be completely machine quilted, but I had problems getting the arcs smooth ... and those are big arcs!

Anyway... I did manage to plug along on the hourglass quilt a little here and there.

Quilting the medallion was fun, and a break from the tedium.

Finally one day, I discovered I was almost finished! I only had a dozen or so hourglass blocks to quilt, so I revved up the motor and got them done. But then ... oh yeah. The borders.

By this point, I really didn't have it in me to hand quilt the borders. But in the meantime, I got my new machine (that was three years ago) with the hand-quilt stitch, which is much easier to manipulate around curves, etc. and would blend right in with the hand quilted interior.

I liked the idea of a cable in the wider border...

and a simple diamond shape in the smaller, inner border.

I love the way the machine "hand quilting" blends in with my own hand quilting. You can hardly tell the difference (except the machine quilting is more even and consistent.) And... I got the borders done within a couple of days.

Yay!

Now all I have to do is bury some threads, and put on the binding. And label it, of course. When that's all done, I'll post a pic.

love,
Sandy