Sunday, February 14, 2016

Slow Sunday Stitching - The Valentine's Day Edition

I've been working steadily on "High Strung+2" over the last couple of weeks and am glad to say I am headed into the final stretch!

 
The good news is that I've completed the quilting on the center of the quilt. All that's left now is the top row of green squares and the two borders. I'm also loving the way the chain of stars and circles and reindeer are popping against the background quilting.  I'm tempted to outline stitch within the appliques but feel it would mash them down and  then they would be pushed down into the same visual plane with the background rather than remain separate and on top of it.  Not to mention that would be that much more stitching work to do!   For now, it stays as is since I'm pushing for getting this whole thing finished up by the end of this week.  Even if I wind up choosing to add the outlining, I'm still confident I can make my ultimate deadline of finishing the quilt by the end of the month.

However, along with the good comes the --- I won't say "bad" --- let's just say the "not what I planned/expected".  My plan for quilting the bottom part of this was that I wanted the stitching to follow the swirl of the chain of stars and circles so started there.  I did very little marking when I stitched this so unfortunately while I started off good:



When I came around the bottom under the stars and the reindeer, I got off course and instead followed the reindeer up and to the right instead of swirling back down to the right along the last star and circle.


Overall I'm happy with the texture created by the stitching but feel I blunted the visual impact of the swirl by mistakenly aborting the end of it.  Fortunately, where this will be hanging, that won't be evident.  And again, I'm not looking to rip and re-do at this point! 

What I am very happy to have gotten out of this experience (besides an almost finished quilt) is the revelation that I CAN make good progress doing hand work.  In my mind it's no longer "too slow",  just a different and relaxing way of working.  A very big change of heart for someone who started out quilting with plans to only machine quilt!   Of course the real test will be when I move on to the wholecloth quilt project after this.  For that one, I'm planning to attempt to execute it with really fine hand quilting which is something I haven't been able to achieve up to now.  But that will be a story for another Sunday! 

And speaking of Sunday Stitching stories, why not head over to  Kathy's Quilts and enjoy the work and stories of all the different types of hand work being done by crafters from all over!  Enjoy!

http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2016/02/slow-sunday-stitching.html

8 comments:

Quilter Kathy said...

So happy that you have found the benefit of hand stitching!
As for the evolution in your quilting design, I say blame the reindeer!!
It's gorgeous!

Deb said...

I just love everything about this post and the quilt, those stars do just pop. I love the relaxed almost meditative state I get when I do hand work, with each stich I feel quiet inside. Happy Stitching and Happy Valentine's Day

deb @ frugal little bungalow said...

Ah this looks lovely and the post conveyed the relaxing benefits of hand stitching. And your design just took a little detour that only you will notice :) Well the reindeer might know but they will never let on.

Carole @ From My Carolina Home said...

That is really adorable, love the reindeer!

Deb A said...

It sounds like you have found the peace and serenity found in hand stitching! I think you quilt came out lovely. Great job.

Kaja said...

This is lovely and no one except you will notice the quilting meadering off course. Welcome to the delights of hand quilting!

The Cozy Quilter said...

Life and quilting are full of detours. Sometimes the detours are what keep life and quilting interesting! Beautiful quilt!

CathieJ said...

I can't believe that I haven't visited your site before this. I found you through Kathy's Quilts. I'm from Long Island so I was pleased to see Bronx in your site name. I was born Parkchester, but my parents moved to LI when I was 6 months old. Your quilt is lovely. I really like the way the stars and reindeer pop. I wouldn't quilt them if I were you. Your quilting looks really nice.