Last weekend I finally got my courage up and started hand quilting the Granny Square Quilt! After practicing again and again and again on my little quilt sandwich I made to act as a "Stunt Quilt" I finally realized something......My quilting stitches look fine as long as you're not investigating them up close. If you step back and look at the big picture it actually looked.....dare I say......GOOD....maybe even REALLY GOOD. So I dove in and started quilting....
I'm not going to be winning any hand quilting awards in the near future.....but at least my stitches no longer look like I had been sewing in the dark with one hand tied behind my back. And it totally reminded me of that line from the move "Clueless." Do you know the one I'm talking about? Where one of the girls is looking at a girl she doesn't like and says "She's like a Monet. She looks fine from far away but up close she's a big old mess!" (And on a slightly related note, my Mom frequently called me Cher for years after that movie came out. I guess she noted a similarity in our personalities. But I'm not quite as ditzy as Cher.....at least I hope I'm not).
And a few people have asked why I'm using Perle Cotton instead of quilting thread. Well, I dunno! I just thought it would look cute that way. And I think I got stuck on the idea after seeing the Granny Square quilt on the Blue Elephant Stitches Blog that started this whole craze. She finished hers with hand quilting and Perle Cotton and it just seemed like the thing to do. And now I'm thinking about hand quilting Hooterville too......if I ever get it done.
But now I'm off to make some homemade pizza bianca, watch Tropical Storm Debby (please, please go away soon!) and work on my Monet masterpiece.
Happy Sewing,
Jenny
8 comments:
10 stitches per inch??? Who said so, probably a professional. I don't do 10 stitches per inch and I don't care!
I have never once done ten stitches per inch. Just call it the "big stitch" and it sounds official. Besides I think handquilting enhances a quilt and ought to be seen. If we wanted invisible miniscule stitches we would be using a machine.
It looks great, and really all that matters is you like it.
It looks great! I don't think I'll ever get 10 stitches per inch...something to try, I guess :-)
I love your quilt!!
Perle cotton is my favorite for hand quilting:)
i think it is beautiful!!! and, yes, i never would have believed you would get 100s in chemistry and major in zoology and neuroscience and become a vet -- but the love of sewing and cooking - you had that love from about four yrs. old!! oh - and that does not AT ALL make you Clueless.
Jen, like anything else it all takes time whether a cake in the oven or a quilt on the bed. Practice is what finally smooths out the bumps in the quilt and even the road ahead in whatever you are doing. It will be perfect - after all it's for you and no one else, so the only person that really matters when it comes to this lovely creation is YOU. Becky Goldsmith has some great pictures with the perle cotton here:
http://www.pieceocake.com/Notions/PerleCotton.html
Good luck and keep us posted. You will enjoy it!!
That is so pretty! I've hand quilted one quilt, and it only took me about 4 years. LOL Well, almost!
I'm so glad we had good weather when we were in Destin. We had a tropical storm when we went 4 years ago and never got to get in the water.
My neighbors are down there right now. Poor things.
10 stitches an inch has been what I've been told in many many quilt workshops and in books. If you can get them that small it looks great but I'm not that good - I can sometimes get 12 but more often it's 13 or 14. One reason I usually have the bulk of my quilt tops done by machine. Its only the "special" ones that I do by hand myself.
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