"Hand Made" Quilt

I think this is the first time I've finished a project and felt proud. I've felt accomplished, relieved, frustrated amongst other emotions, but I've never felt so proud. This was a big hurdle for me to overcome. I have always been slightly terrified of the needle and thread. Never knowing how something so simple worked.



More pics here. (Still having some issues with uploading photos on Blogger. Maybe not patient enough.)

No, it's not the most beautiful quilt in the whole world, but I handpieced it and handquilted it. I'm a proud mom. I took the Quiltmaking By Hand class at Purl Patchwork back in Nov/Dec and just finished this little 24"x24" guy tonight. I held it up and was so happy to see that I could actually do some (very mediocre) handquilting. It is definitely not a hard concept, but wow is it hard to perfect. As my teacher said, you just have to practice and quilt for miles to get it the way you want it.

You can see how it's completely unplanned. The four center squares are what I finished in class, and I was anxious to get started on the quilting. So, I just threw the corners in with some much-too-large tan pieces, basted and marked with a hera marker. That hera marker... now that's an awesome invention.

I started quilting with whatever it was I bought for the class. Some cheap stuff I bought at Joann's on sale. Well, I'm here to tell you it makes a difference. Get some good waxed cotton, because the thread will break. And get some good needles. I broke, more like snapped violently, 3 needles within the first two rows before getting online and doing some google searches on "best hand quilting needles". I found some Jean S. Lyle needles on Rose Rushbrooke's site and am still using the first one I pulled out. They are brilliant. I bought the size 10's and 11's with the big eye.

Then, after a little frustration with my basic quilting hoop, I decided to invest in a lap hoop from Hinterberg Design and it's been sitting on my lap every night since.

I highly recommend this whole process. It's like getting back to your roots.