This is not how the pro's do it

Quilting by hand.

I have watched a series of very good videos on hand quilting made by an Amish woman. She's a pro. There are a lot of pro's. I am not one of them. The small, close stitching; the picking up of 4 or 5 stitches at once, it is remarkable what can be done. It will be some time before (if !) I ever achieve such a level at hand quilting. It will be wonderful if I do, but it's also wonderful if I don't. I am making quilts that I like and am happy with.

At the polar opposite of close, fine stitching is "big stitch quilting". I don't do that either, I'm in the middle. Neither small nor big, my quilting stitches are medium sized and they do a good job of holding the filling in place.

The pro's I've watched use a frame with the quilt stretched over it. I've tried that but find I need a lot of give to the quilt as I work; taught is out. I've also tried a special, custom made-to-size thimble for my left hand to hold under the quilt. I've read that some people use the backside of a spoon. It feels like a barrier to the tactile feedback I get without it. Same for my right hand, working above the quilt: a thimble feels awkward and less sensitive than my bare hands. So for those reasons, taking four or five stitches at a time is out of the question--it requires a lot of pressure to push the needle through 4 stitches, all through 3 layers at once, it would destroy the fingers without a thimble.

So I take one stitch at time. It's enjoyable and I figure if I do it enough, adding another stitch to the one might just naturally develop, and maybe, before I even realize it, I'll be taking 4 stitches at a time. I have the thimble and thread puller. It could happen. But it's OK if it doesn't.

Timble, thread puller, and special under-quilt thimble

All geared up with the three implements is just a bit too much for me right now. I lose a sense of control when wearing and trying to use them. They need practice.

Donning the thimble and thread puller on right hand

 

Bespoke thimble on left hand

Taking one stitch at a time goes faster than one imagines. I can do one block in two to three hours, just about a block a day. Not bad. Faster than the applique work.

Since the quilt is large, I find that some sort of frame is helpful, but I use mine simply to drape the quilt over; it holds it up without the weight being born by me. I use this embroidery frame, at the edge of a table.

Embroidery frame to hold the quilt while working on it

Quilt draped over frame for stitching

In addition to the large basting stitches I put in to hold the three layers of the quilt together, I also baste smaller stitches around the block I'm quilting to ensure that it doesn't pucker while I stitch. The basting comes out as soon as I finish the block. On to the next.

Very long basting stitches running vertically; smaller basting around current block

I'm using blue quilting thread for this quilt. It's what I had. Can you believe I stopped at a quilt shop to see what other colors they had in quilting threads and they don't carry nary a quilting thread! I guess long-arm is defacto these days, which is kind of sad. Hey! I've done it, but feel I have evolved to hand stitching.

I have currently finished 3 blocks. A sample of my medium sized stitches:

Quilting stitches in blue

I am happy to be working on this. There's been some great wheel spinning as well; that'll be a different post. 

 

Out on the deck with the great wheel

Lovely weather today, bright, clear, not too hot.

I spent an hour this morning carding some Wensleydale, then tinkered with the big wheel, replacing a leather bearing that had become torn. In an effort to make a small, unofficial contribution to Tour de Fleece, I then lugged the wheel out to the deck to spin my fresh rolags.

I need more practice, lots of it. The start was a bit rough, my singles were way too thin. Also, I was being very conscious of the amount of twist going into the fibers. I don't like "hard" yarn, so my objective was to produce a somewhat consistent, pretty single with a comfortable amount of twist. An amount that would not ply up into string. It became obvious at plying time that my first few minutes worth of spinning created a single that was too fragile in places, and there were a few breakages. Not the end of the world. I spliced and carried on. Ninety-eight percent of the spun single, however, was quite decent. I had corrected the over drafting and remembered the art of 'letting go'. One trick is to start letting go of perfection when one section begins to stretch alarmingly thin. It means letting some thicker parts move on.  Difficult to do, but you know what? Plying evens out a lot of the variation. It gets easier with experience.

This was a sample run.  Plied from the reel, three ply, chain style. 25 yards. I think I will continue to spin as such, but maybe ply from 3 singles, non-chained style.

Dusk was just settling in when I hung it out to dry, but it dried fast in the ambient temps.

The resulting yarn has a substantial halo, and is soft enough for bare skin. No, I don't think I'll need to do another sample, I'm pretty happy with this.

 

 

The rug is finished

 Just finished the binding this afternoon. Here it is out on the deck...

I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out. I think the person who started hooking this rug--who knows when or where--would also be happy to see it now, and the thought of that makes me happy. And it looks great in it's new dining room location.

 I sewed the binding over with herringbone stitches. A wonderful, giving stitch that doesn't cause any pulling. I zipped up the 4 corners with ladder stitching to make it invisible.

Herringbone stitching

 

The corners are sewn with ladder stitches

This has been a wonderful project.

The newest unfinished rug, the one I purchased at the sheep and wool festival is not going to be worked on right away because I want to quilt this top that I made a few years ago.

I'm itching to start stitching!

But a note about the latest unfinished rug. I had developed a visceral dislike for the coloring of the largest center flower, which I believe is a rose. As seen here, it contains a lot of very, very deep red--just about brown.

Center flower creates a line with 2 end flowers.

I dislike the line it creates with the two Irises on each end, of the same color. It also, to my eyes, clashes with the rest of the pastel flowers. So even though I'm not going to work on it right away, I tore out the darkest of that flower, and in my opinion, looks much improved already. Not sure which tones of color I will re-hook it with, but it will be more in keeping with the general tone of the other flowers.

 

Dark color has been removed from center flower.

A pretty evening sky last week: