Last night I began the long journey of hand quilting Pemberley. I used a little bit wider border than the designer, Katrina Hadjimichael, did on her quilt and my quilt top measured 90.5" x 99". Its going to be a beautiful bed cover on my guest room bed someday.I should start keeping a time journal on how long it takes me to quilt it, as so often people will ask,"How long did it take you to quilt that?" and I never know. But then again, do I really want to know????
A friend, Jessica Hall, who is also a longarm quilter, basted this quilt together for me. I tried doing it my self but was overwhelmed with the size. She did a great job and I will definitely have her do large quilts in the future for me.
I am using wool batting for the first time and so far enjoying working with it. The wool gives the quilt a different feel and I think the drape will be nicer. I am using YLI hand quilting thread, but have found I have to put the Thread Heaven treatment on the thread to get it to smoothly glide through the batting. This was never necessary with 80/20 batting.
I have also started putting together by machine piecing a "15 Degree Quilt." I took a workshop in 2017 to learn this technique, making one block, and enjoyed it so much that I purchased fabric to make a quilt. The fabric has resided in a UFO box since 2017 and is now destined to become a big girl quilt for my granddaughter, Adeline. Her 4th birthday is in February, and I hope to have to have it completed by then, but I will obviously have to machine quilt this one as my hoop will be filled for most of the upcoming year. This will be a twin size quilt and I will probably just cross hatch it, a favorite machine quilting technique.
I hope you enjoy every minute of the hand-stitching on that beautiful quilt. I really like the fabrics you are using in your daughter's quilt. I am looking forward to watching your progress on both.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt. I look forward to seeing your progress!
ReplyDeletePemberley is a lovely quilt. I personally like wool batting better than the 80/20 cotton poly. I haven't had a problem with YLI thread but everyone is different. Hopefully it will improve. Happy Stitching!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful quilt! Good luck with the great work that hand quilting is. :-)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on progressing to the quilting stage of this beautiful quilt.
ReplyDeleteLovely. Quilting may go faster than you think. May I suggest keeping a small-sized spiral notepad near your quilt than it would be easy to add the time spent quilting. However, I do get if you really want to know or not. Thanks for mentioning have a longarmer baste large quilt. It seems like it will give the hand quilting even tension.
ReplyDeleteI do love handwork! Is your hoop on a stand? It's a beautiful quilt, well deserving of whatever time it takes to quilt it!! :)
ReplyDeleteI once quilted a single size quilt for a friend and I started to count the hours but gave up less than halfway through. I didn't think I could ask to be paid by the time I spent so since she had access to overseas mail, I asked her to get me an Ott light. I am still enjoying that light and probably her grandson has long outgrown the quilt.
ReplyDeleteOooh, looks like you're having lots of quilting fun. Looking forward to seeing your Pemberly progress. And that new 15 degree quilt looks pretty cool!
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