One of the quilts that arrived in my shipment from storage was one of the very first quilts I ever worked on, a Sunshine and Shadow. For more about that, read this post. Anyway, this is the quilt I learned to hand quilt on, in a frame, which was horrible. My mom and I both quilted on this in one direction and then the quilt came off the frames and I did the rest of the quilting over the next several years with no frame and no hoop.
The difference is obvious between my first quilting stitches and the later ones.
I have my Alphabet Sampler up on the wall now too. It was one of the first quilts I did with the freehand fans. I notice that my fans were much flatter then than they are now - the difference in practise. I convinced a friend of mine to do the freehand fans and she was a bit discouraged that they were coming out flat, but hopefully this will help her take heart:
More rounded fans aren't superior to flat ones. Just different. I love them all. Speaking of variations in the fans, have you been reading Tanya's blog? She had a great entry about a Japanese sashiko quilting design that is the same as the fans. Go read it here.Kristin, I hold the quilting needle in my right hand and do a rocking motion, gathering multiple stitches at a time. In my left hand I hold a fold of the quilt and that hand stays steady. I don't put any kind of tension on the quilt sandwich.
11 comments:
It's really inspiring to see your improvement! Love the new header of your blog, too!
You can add labels without having new blogger repost older posts. Go to manage posts and select the posts you want to have new labels then at the top is a drop down that you can assign current and new labels with. I love adding labels!
What fun to rediscover old treasures as you unpack! Your recent finishes look great, and it's nice to contrast this to the first one.
Seeing the impovement in your stitching gives me some hope for mine. Thanks.
Love the new banner Tonya! We all have to start somewhere and again my thanks for showing us where you started. And how nice that you started with your mum :)
I thought about you last night and was going to write about this subject and ask a few questions. I'll ask here and maybe others can learn too. I am doing my small quilt and once I got the center done I took it off the hoop and I'm finishing the edges with no hoop. But I guess without the weight pulling down the back side I feel like the fabric moves around too much.
So all you do is hold the fold with the left hand, right? You still rock the needle back with the thimble and use your right thumb to do the rocking stitch back and forth? You aren't using your left hand for anything right?
I keep finding myself holding the needle with my finger and thumb on the right hand and using my LEFT thumb to pull the fabric down and pop the needle back up. I think because there's no drag on such a small quilt.
I like the tautness of the hoop I guess, especially for the smaller 16x20 quilts, but the stitches you make are so impressively small and even. Thanks for answering.
great look to your blog Ton..and love the contrast of early stitches vs later...I am trying to not start a new little quilt just so I have something to hand quilt!
I like your blog header... it's... incredible lol
And I love the hot colors of those two quilts on the wall, they look smashing with the iron bed against them. :)
Yes!!!! Your banner is INCREDIBLE! (And so are you!)
I actually kind of like those flat fans! And isn't that difference in quilting amazing! What fun to see it in a quilt like that!
Ok -- so seeing your first efforst might, just might, convince me to TRY hand quilting. Actually, it is now on my list of things to do this summer -- one of those stretching exercises! Though when I asked my gmil to teach me her response was: put the needle in and out of the fabric. Hmmmn...guess it is pretty simple after all.
Love your masterpiece and the links back to the stories behind your older quilts. Thanks again for sharing your enthusiasm for quilting!
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