faulker094

Dust off that half quilting hoop you have stuffed away somewhere and let's learn how to use it!   It may feel awkward at first, but soon it will be your saving grace when trying to finish hand quilting the edges of your quilt. In order to load your quilt, work on a table or flat surface. The ticking is where you will pin the edge of your quilt, being careful not to attach it so deeply that you will catch the ticking with your quilting stitches. Use study, large pins, what some call "nails" - not the fine, very bendy kind we like to piece with on our sewing machines. Here is the very edge of my quilt.  I usually quilt as far as I can with my regular 14-inch round hoop.  The large half hoops are not balanced as nicely, and therefore a little awkward.  That is because the straight edge where the ticking is located is lighter than the round edges securing your quilt. See my blue line...that is my reminder to quilt no farther. The tension adjustment is just like a regular...

What started out in my mind as echo quilting on my "Contentment" quilt is really stippling, I guess.  And the stippling sometimes feels crippling as the end of my thumb has gone from normal to calloused to cracked callous.  OUCH! But I am making progress!  I have completed 2 outer borders, 2 corners, and I am most of the way through my 3rd border. What keeps me going?  DVD movies and political intrigue on TV (the former being less disturbing than the latter).  "Sully" (which is FABULOUS), "The Sound of Music," the second "Sex in the City" movie, "Bridget Jones' Diary" (oldie, but goodie), all the "Harry Potter" movies, "Beauty and the Beast"...I am enjoying going through my DVD shelves. Every time I show a picture of my half quilting hoop I get a lot of inquiries about where I got it.  It was many, many years ago (early 90's, I think).  It has "Grace" stamped on the inside.  I went to the Grace webs...

The hand quilting is progressing...hoop-full by hoop-full.  I finally got around to cleaning up the scraps and snippets left over from basting the layers and realized I used a " Quilter's Dream Cotton - Select" batting remnant.  I wanted the applique motifs to really "pop" prominently.   (Jill, was it you who asked about the batt?  It was not a " Warm and Natural" batting remnant, as I first believed.)  I have got to start stapling a label on my batting remnants... I really like hand quilting with a "Request" weight batt...it is easier to make finer stitches.  But now that I am using this thicker weight batt I am having to just do the best I can. I have all the center squares and first stop border done, so now I am concentrating on the second and outer borders. The center of the quilt (all blocks plus both skinny inner borders) is 1936 square inches to quilt. The outer border alone is 1428 square inches.   I have learned not to get to exci...

These are very poor quality pictures that I took late last night before going to bed following a long afternoon and evening of hand quilting.  I thought I would show you where I am in the process of quilting my "Contentment" quilt top. I am outline quilting every little piece, then echo quilting as a background fill. The quilt just seemed too busy to me to try and do anything more organized like background gridding or lines. It will look better after a good pressing...I am quilting on a hoop and have the top all wadded up in my lap as I make progress. I tried stretching it out on top of the TV table I am using to take these poor pictures. I started with the big 16-inch center block then proceeded into the twelve 10-inch surrounding blocks, heading  toward the borders. It is a lot of stitches!  I have almost burned through my first spool of YLI hand quilting thread (#002 Ecru) and several layers of skin on my right thumb and left index and middle fingers. It is pretty bor...

More recycling...I used up the rest of 3+ spools (and one white bobbin!) of my Mom's old polyester thread to baste my "Contentment" quilt.  She used to keep her spools of thread in a clear, large pickle jar on a sunny window shelf...over time, all the spools were naturally variegated!  I think this is the most I have ever basted any quilt top of any size...I don't want this sucker to shift while I am hand-quilting with a hoop!   There is a lot of turning that hoop while outline quilting around all these shapes! I watched my new Season One DVD of PBS's "Victoria" and re-watched Seasons Two and Three of "The Big Bang Theory" while doing all this basting. As I start hand quilting, I am enjoying a "Harry Potter" home film festival! Basting threads are pink, orange, teal and white... I have started to quilt the center, largest block.  I am outlining, then I am doing a close echo/fill.  It is the first time I have quilted like this, and...

I had an email question from Tammy in Canada about how I do my hand applique letters on my quilts.  I thought I would take a few moments and do a quick, sort of crude tutorial. Letters can be a fun addition to a quilt where you want to add your name and/or historical info.  I love looking at antique quilts where the maker put her/his name, initials and/or a date.  It makes the quilt so much more personal to me.  Of course, they may not be appropriate on all tops. I used them A LOT in my "Contentment" anniversary quilt top, which has a folksy, whimsical content. I don't have an art background, but I will share what I do.  There may be alphabets commercially available out there to use, but I just construct my own. I work with tracing paper, a ruler, a pencil, an ultra-thin Sharpie marker and a good eraser. You can make your letters any size you want.  First, I will show you how I make 2-1/2 inch tall letters.  I draw two parallel lines, 2-1/2 inches ap...