Caught the bug

Well, the hand-quilting bug is hanging around these here parts even though my hexie quilt is finished, washed and in use.

Remember my red and cream sampler from the fabulous blocks that the hipBees made me?  I looked and looked at it trying to decide how to quilt it, and to be honest trying to ignore the little voice in my ear.  But you know, the voice was right, this quilt deserves a little more personal quilting attention, so hand-quilting it is.

Using a deep ruby DMC perle thread, I made a start with Rachel's 3D pinwheel

and Tanya's wonky log cabin.  And I am now so glad that I didn't machine quilt this one!

I love the individual quilting of the blocks, which I simply wouldn't have been patient enough to do by machine.  I know the handquilting will ultimately lengthen the process of this quilt.  In truth, I would love to get it finished very soon and up on the wall but I am trying to appreciate that as a wallhanging this quilt will be the better for the handstitched effect.





























It's also given me an opportunity to try out quarter inch quilting tape rather than just stitching the seam by eye.  My opinion of the tape:  it can be a bit fiddly and requires a little patience (not much, just a little) to apply but actually I achieved a much nicer straight stitch line as a result and I will continue to use it on each block for this quilt where the red stitches against the kona snow are very obvious if they're badly aligned.

So, two down only 14 more to handquilt!  Sometimes, I wonder if my ideas are my own worst enemy...

Making it up as I go along?

Progress with my "Forever" hexagon quilt has felt painfully slow this month.  Why it should feel so slow now when it has been more than two and a half years in the making, I'm not sure.  Maybe it's just that the end seems so close, yet so far away.

Anyhoo ...

I have decided that having made it this far without the use of a sewing machine on this quilt, that it sort of deserves to be finished by hand, too.  Perhaps I just fancy being able to say that I have made one entire quilt (albeit not terribly large) by hand in my lifetime - and no, I cannot imagine there ever being another!

Finishing a quilt by hand, especially when I've decided not to square it off but keep the hexagon shaping around the edges, is not something I am familiar with.  So I'm sort of winging it a little.  First of all, I've added the back border of hexagons, right side down on top of the front border and whip stitched in place around the quilt.

Next, I basted the top to the wadding and yes, I took a lot of time to cut the wadding into shape, basted the backing on and cut it to shape also. (Tedious springs to mind, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.)

Basted front and back

Normally, I would quilt before I cut my wadding and backing down to size, but for this quilt I need to be able to quilt in the border so I want to deal with it first.  I'm hoping I haven't made a mistake in changing the "natural" order of things - I'll let you know if I discover (belatedly) a reason why I really shouldn't have.

Having removed the papers, I turned the hexie border over gently, pushing out the points with my trusty crochet hook and enclosing the wadding and backing fabric underneath it.  It's all pinned safely down and I'm currently stitching it in place with an invisible applique stitch just as I would finish binding on any other quilt.

Eventually, I hope to be able to use these perle cottons to finish the quilt with some handquilting.

Many, many times I have been tempted to just whip this through the sewing machine to get it finished, but I think I would regret it if I did that.  So, I'm trying to remain patient and move towards the quilt finish just one stage at a time.  This quilt is becoming the elephant I'm trying to eat, I think!