Grrr, Wanting Something for Nothing & No Appreciation for Fine Hand Quilting....A Rare Speckledhen

[ApiaryandAviary]

I thought that would help you see how they'd each look on the quilt. It may help some that the border fabric I bought today and the center squares are both Maywood Studios so the colors probably are "in sync" with each other. And I chose fabrics to coordinate off that center square as much as possible.

You know I love to tease

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

The quilt is basted and ready to quilt. I'll start tomorrow when I'm fresh. Here is the quilt showing the backing (I don't think you ever saw it) and a mockup of the dewdrop pattern I did really quick to see if you like that or want a loopy pattern.

Love the dew drop

 

[speckledhen]

Love the dew drop

Me, too. It's easy and a tad more interesting than just the "loopies". So, will start on that tomorrow. The machine is cleaned out, oiled and has a brand new needle in place.

You know I love to tease

Ha, say it ain't so!

 

[speckledhen]

Quilting has begun. I've already whizzed through the first bobbin. I ran 12 of them to start. Usually, it takes about that many for a quilt this size, but depends on the density of the quilting. I rearranged the sewing machine to the other side of the table and put my card table on the end of it for more room on the left and it works much better! So, Miss Apiary (what is your real name anyway? Your profile doesn't say), are you certain about this one? I like it. I put it on my bed to lay out the backing on the floor and it should have enough at the end to tuck your pillow, though it doesn't technically have a pillow-tuck area separate at the top like some I've made. I like it! LOVE the border fabric and I can guarantee you will, too. It's just scrumptious!



You know the lady who "inspired" this entire thread, the one I made the custom hand quilted bed runner for, would probably be snippy that the design was not perfectly uniform. Well, that's what a computer does, not a person using her own two hands and pushing a heavy quilt through a machine with feed dogs lowered, but you'd never convince her of that. I personally like the organic quality of this type quilt. Some may want a computer-generated design, sure. Me, though they're pretty, I see that a machine did it. If not a machine, then it's a $1000 hand-quilted masterpiece.
It still burns me up that my neighbor let those old biddies tell her that she paid too much for a very large, custom hand-quilted bed runner for a mere $90, including materials, ack! I can do a gorgeous design if I draw it on fabric and hand quilt the lines, but I cannot follow a line doing free motion. Maybe I'm just a rebel at heart and free-motion living is in my veins, LOL. No line following, ha!

We got a frosting of snow last night.Winds must have been 50 mph. Taking frequent breaks to relax my shoulders and neck, listening to combination of Last of The Mohicans, Native flute music and Yanni to quilt by. DH off to town to mail a quilt to Wyoming fpr me and get some stuff we ran out of. So, no TV to bug me for a bit, yea!

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

...

Quilting has begun.

 

[speckledhen]

Looking good. That old friend of yours does not know what she is missing. Totally hand made, I can not afford. Totally machine made I may as well
Buy something made from a sewing plant in the Orient or A SouthWestern Import(prisons of Mexico). No, I will buy an American made anyday and if I can give business to a self- employed, retired, Artist, craftsman or hobbiest, all the better.

I appreciate that more than I can tell you.

I have a section of 9 blocks completed now, will take a break and get back to it later. I must say, this thread I'm using for the first time is very strong! It's a very thin strand, but super strong, no shredding or breaking yet at all. The Coats & Clark of the same general type will shred and break over and over again, which makes it frustrating to use on a big project. The Maxi-Lock is better, though it's not as fine of a strand as this Sew-ology from Hobby Lobby. I'm going to review it on their site since it had no reviews yet.

ETA: Adding that I finished up 16 blocks yesterday. That thread did not break even once. So, will get back to it today. I ordered what I think is probably the same fabric from Thousands of Bolts. Yup, $4.95/yd. The yard and a half from the quilt shop cost me $17, but at least I was positive it was the right color because I took swatches with me to lay against it. But I will probably make binding from it to bind this quilt, too. Sometimes you can fold the backing over the front to use as binding, but this backing would take away from the deep rich rose color of the border so not doing it the easy way this time.

 

[speckledhen]

Completed half of the 48 blocks today, stopping for the evening to rest my shoulders/neck. I will do the border after all the blocks are finished.

 

[JanetMarie]

Myself being an artist also, I always appreciated hand made over machine fabricated. The quilt is beautiful.

 

[speckledhen]

Myself being an artist also, I always appreciated hand made over machine fabricated. The quilt is beautiful.

Thanks. I do hand quilting far better than machine, however, when the fingers tingle then go numb, hand quilting becomes less than pleasant. Mine even do that when I'm whipstitching the binding on at the end.

This is my hand quilting. See what I mean? That's my forte.

 

[JanetMarie]

I don't know much about homemade, or hand stitched quilting. I appreciate both how your work on the machine, and your hand stitching looks.