>don’t even know what i was afraid of

>

maybe that it’s addicting? I may want to start hand quilting everything.

I’m practicing taking teeny stitches every so often, but for the most part I’m trying to keep my stitches mostly even. While I like the quilting frame, I wish it were a bit larger. I cant fit a whole circle without moving the frame, which takes a little elbow grease. But the ladies at the quilt shop told me the larger frame is really heavy, and I can see where it might be uncomfortable.

I used a clover clover chaco liner and a 60 degree ruler to mark the lines (which are 30 degrees apart). I’m practicing with these straight lines, and I’ll come back for the “petals” later. My quilting motif was inspired by this Anna Maria Horner quilt. (Piecing was inspired by this free pattern.) Here’s my sketch:

I’m glad this is a wall hanging, so the back won’t show. I’m also really glad I picked a dark, busy print. It perfectly compliments the front, and the quilting blends in well. It’s definitely a struggle to get it even on the back.

I definitely needed a better thimble, though. Wasn’t able to get one earlier this week cause my car’s been in the shop. I’d been using my leather thimble, but I wanted to try a rigid one. They’re supposed to help manipulate the needle more. So I haven’t worked on this since Tuesday, but I finally got my thimble. So we’ll see how the rest goes!

>stubbornness pays off

>I fully own my stubbornness. If it weren’t for my stubborn (sometimes bordering on obstinate) nature, I probably never would have gotten these blocks pieced, much less assembled this quilt top. (My last post about this project has more info on fabrics and the pattern.)

While making this (which I’m calling “drunkard’s garden”), so far I have stabbed a bone in my finger with a pin — it kind of felt like hitting my funny bone, but very precisely, and in my finger (no blood) — and used my seam ripper more times than I care to remember. And I haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet! This will be my first attempt at hand quilting. I bought some DMC Perlé 8 in black, some crewel needles (size 2), and an 11″x17″ Q-snap frame. Though after reading a few more hand-quilting tutorials, I think I need to pick up a rigid thimble. My nimble thimble may not cut it.

This is where the stubbornness comes in again. Sure, I’ve never hand quilted, but I’m determined that it will happen. Just like I was determined I could conquer curved piecing. Wish me luck!

>like sands through the hourglass

>Wow, I got so much done during the Austin Modern Quilt Guild retreat last weekend! In an effort to avoid an overly lengthy post, I’ll just show you one project today, and I’m linking up with Workshop in Progress. I meant to post this on Wednesday, but it slipped my mind with the many trips my poor car has had to make to the mechanic.

The huge design walls at the Wimberley Quilt Ranch gave me the perfect opportunity to lay out my double hourglass blocks. As those of you who read my ramblings know, I’ve been recording how long each step of the process takes with this quilt. It took me about an hour to arrange the blocks on the design wall, with some help from fellow retreaters. This time may be a bit inflated, since we were playing a sewing drinking game at the time — it was after midnight on the Saturday when I started this process. The first time I climbed up the step ladder I almost fell off. Here’s a picture Mitzi took of me not falling down:

(photo by Mitzi Ann)

I started sewing blocks together around 1 a.m., and kept going as the room slowly emptied as my friends went to bed. I finished around 5 a.m. This puts me at about 16 hours on this thing so far.

Now, a part of me is tempted to buy some batting and backing and start quilting this sucker, but another part of me is tempted to add borders and make this a bed quilt. Right now, it measures about 64″x80″ — roughly the size of my mattress. I would need to add about 6″ worth of border. I’m considering tracking down the white-on-white polka dot that is part of the line, but which I omitted from these blocks, for a first 2″ border, then adding a 4″ border of one of the blue prints. I, of course, have no idea how I would quilt this with borders. I was planning to simply quilt a quarter inch on either side of the diagonal seams that dissect each block. What do you think?