I actually made this quilt in 2002, but not sure I ever posted a picture of it on my blog. This was a block exchange I did with some friends in Texas where we swapped Red and White 9 patches. I did all the embroidery myself just picking a wide variety of patterns. The nutcracker was done by my dear friend Donna Kassan, who is an avid collector of Nutcrackers.
This morning I took the last hand quilting stitch on my Dear Jane quilt. Its a bitter sweet moment when you take that last stitch, as Jane and I have spent a lot of quiet contemplative hours together in the early hours of the day when all is quiet. An empty hoop.....
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| Full Circle and back at the corner block I started with....the last stitch. This quilt was one of the most difficult I have hand quilting, just because there are so many pieces in each pieced block. Some of the small 4 1/2" blocks had 40 - 50 pieces! This particular corner has 78 pieces Pushing and pulling a needle through all the layers of fabric and batting can even be painful and draw blood. Using a thimble in stab quilting just never worked of me. My "friend" became the little demitasse spoon that I covered in masking tape and used to push the needle down to the back and then from the underside, push it back to the top. Nothing fancy, but oh so greatly appreciated.  And now she waits until I get the time to put a binding on her raw edges. A scalloped edge can be a challenge when the scallops are this small, but then every step of this quilt was a challenge.  |
Tonight I finished the last blocks and now I am ready to start putting the top together. Here are the three blocks from Part 6 and a picture of the how I have laid out the blocks. Tess was here to help me get it just right (in our eyes) and I sure did appreciate her input.
