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...
