Hand quilting tools

 

I really enjoy hand quilting small projects and that is what I'm doing for the Harvest Stars mini quilt. It's only 14" square so it won't need a ton of stitching to look great.

 

Notice the white tool laying on the piece. It is a Clover powder stick and is working perfectly for marking the quilting lines on this dark fabric. On light fabrics I use a disappearing purple pen which vanishes in air after a couple of hours.

 

But the purple wouldn't show up on the black or burgundy, so I am trying this tool that I bought recently.  It has a narrow end with teeny tiny holes so you can draw right in the slots in the design stencil, just like using a pencil. The powder comes out of the holes and leaves a clean line on the fabric.  When done, it brushes away quite nicely. 

 

I'm marking one small section at a time so that I'm less likely to smudge the lines off.  My quilting frame is a plastic PVC type that is about 10" square.  It's perfect for holding small projects. And it's a good travel size, so I'm planning to take this with me tomorrow when I go to babysit granddaughter Sophia for the day.  She had an umbilical hernia repaired yesterday and can't go back to day care or pre-school until Monday.

A small finish to add to my stash report

Wow!  I am so much happier with this mini quilt than I was when I first started it. And I finally got a photo that is fairly accurate with the colors.

Isn't it strange how sometimes when you have a project going in those first stages, it suddenly doesn't look like you imagined it would?  And then the disappointment sets in and that is when things are in danger of being set aside to never to finished. 

That is where this project was after I had about 3 of the sections made. I was seriously questioning my color choices and just didn't like it.  But I pulled it out this month and decided I needed to "suck it up" and finish it anyway. It has a lot of pink in it so it will meet our guild challenge to make something with pink. And now that it's hand quilted and bound - I love it. 

This pattern is from a book on paper pieced minis called Little Gems. And now that I have this one done I've already been looking through the book to figure out which one I want to try next. But not right away.

Now for a quick stash report. I forgot to do one last week so this is a 2 week report and I only have 1/2 yard of "used" fabric to claim - for this mini quilt. But I'm getting really close to adding some bigger used numbers as soon as I finish some binding. Last week I did add 3.5 yards of stash enhancement however.

In this week: 3.5 ydsIn this year: 9 ydsOut this week: .5 ydsOut this year: 18.5 yds

I am still ahead of my stash by 8.5 yards this year so far. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

More hand quilting

I'm doing some minimal hand quilting on this new 60 degree table runner. Sometimes I question whether or not to bother with the hand quilting. In this case I'm mostly just quilting along the lines of the print, so it isn't going to take a long time or show up a lot, but it will give it some texture. And of course it will hold it all together.

This border fabric was a purchase from a few years ago with the 60 degree runner in mind. But I just never seemed to get around to it.  One evening last week I spent a couple of hours in my sewing room pulling fabrics from the drawers that I knew had been sitting for awhile and did a bit of planning.

I made 2 of these 60 degree runners plus one small octagon one from the trimmings (the other fabric), and set aside enough fabric for 4 more pillowcases.  This runner will be hand quilted, but the other one will be machine quilted.  The octagon one is already done - quilted and bound.

I just HAVE to use up some of this beautiful fabric lying in my stash. Last night after work I cut and pinned the pillowcases and pulled enough fabric for at least 2 additional ones. They will all be donated.