Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Hand Quilting

A UFO Finish!

Way back in 2005 I took a hand quilting class in preparation to hand quilt my Double Wedding Ring (DWR) quilt. I got the grid work done and maybe one of the swirls and set it aside – possibly because I spilled tea or Diet Dr Pepper on it.  Anyway I went on to quilt the DWR as well as the pieced blocks in my nephews quilt and this sat in the bottom of the box of UFOs and on the top of my UFO list since it was my oldest ‘top’.

The back of the pillow is this sweet vintage print from my stash. I watched this video to make the pillow cover.  Oh – it is a 16″ pillow form that my SIL gave me.

 

A Quilting Challenge – Really?!!

I’m living in a house which has NO room completed, so naturally, I’m going to participate in my quilt guild’s UFO Challenge.  I’ve picked 12 quilts which need to be completed and shown by December 5th, 2022.

1- Hand Quilted White Work. This is my oldest quilt “top” from sometime in 2005.  I took a hand quilting class in preparation to quilt my DWR.

2 – QIAD Green & Cream Swap from the fall of 2006. It’s my 3rd oldest UFO.

3 – Johnny’s Strip Twist.  I started this at a quilt retreat in 2016. I had problems with my 1/4″ seam, so started over. I have enough sections to make at least 2 quilts.

4 – Pink & Black Auction Crazy Strings. I bought the blocks at an auction in 2018. This will be the 3rd quilt I’ve made from them. I pulled the fabrics when I thought I was going to a Sit-n-Sew in December so I’m counting it.

5 – Christmas Wall Hanging. My SIL and I purchased the fabric for this quilt at the same time — July 2018.  Hers is finished, I have part of 1 block done.

6 – Frolic the 2019 Quiltville Mystery Quilt. This looks like it just needs to be quilted.  But I need to make the backing bigger, so I’ll be making more blocks.

7 – Baubles ‘N Beads – I made this top in August 2020 and just need to quilt it.

8 – Shimmer – I’m using the leftover fabric from Bauble ‘N Beads and Atomic Starburst to make this quilt. I started it  August 2020.

9 – Atomic Starburst – the top was completed in March 2021, which is why it’s listed after Shimmer.

10 – MQA BOM – I finished the quilt top the end of September 2021 – so it is possible to piece with the house torn apart.

11 – Ruby’s Sampler – I started this the New Year’s Eve 2020. I still need to write up the patterns for the blocks and of course finish making the top.  I need to make 4 more blocks.

12 – SQG BOM – The first block came out February 2021. I made 3 blocks before I stopped sewing last year to start packing.  I didn’t get a picture of the 3rd block.

In addition to the above I’m participating in a Pizza Box Challenge – one block a month with one of my guilds & I’m considering a mystery quilt with the other guild.  The retreat usually has a lotto block – I’ll try to make one; a swap block – I’ll probably skip this time; and a mystery quilt – which I may not do either.

My goal is to not start anything new, but now that I think about it, there’s a pot holder and possibly a sweatshirt jacket in my future.

 

 

What’s On My Design Wall

DWR-donenotwashed

 

More accurately, what is on my bed?

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A long, long  time ago, in a land far away, a young wife and seamstress wanted to make a Double Wedding Ring quilt for her and her husband’s 5th wedding anniversary. She went to the local quilt shop in Montgomery, Alabama and signed up for the class and purchased the fabric.  The date was September 13, 1989.

The quilt shop ladies did their best to talk this young woman out of making this quilt as it would be only her second quilt, the first one a simple applique quilt made 5 or 6 years earlier in high school. But, she was not to be denied. After all, she had over a year to get the quilt done.

DWRReceipts

 

Material was purchased. The quilt pattern for the class was Mary Ellen Ingle Hopkins’ book The Double Wedding Ring Book.Double Wedding Ring Quilt

In class, she carefully traced off the templates onto clear plastic, drew around them onto the fabric and cut the fabric with scissors.  This was after all 1989 and shaped templates to use with a rotary cutter and mat were not available for this pattern.

DWR-originaltemplates

Over the course of the class, several rings were sewn together, a whole row or two were assembled, and then the young woman was on her own.  More rings were made, but then a few months later the entire project was gathered up and put away so she could focus on her pending discharge from the military and move to the Kansas City area.

It is a lost memory on whether or not the quilt was worked on during the next year, but she did make a few simple quilts as “model garments” for the fabric store she worked at during the evenings.

After a year in Kansas City, the couple moved to Texas where they lived for the next 7 years and three moves. During this time, the quilt was pulled out periodically to be worked on with the revised goal of the 10 anniversary (1995). During this time the quilt never became the sole focus, so although progress was made, it was never completed.

In 1999 the couple moved back to the Kansas City area. A new goal was set. Get the quilt done for their 20th anniversary.  The quilt was pulled out periodically and an effort was made to work on it, but now she had a serious case of quilt pox and had new projects to start.  Their 20th anniversary came and went.

The 25th anniversary was the new goal.

The quilt went to a couple of quilt retreats. A hand quilting class was taken in preparation of finishing the quilt. This was 2005 so there was still time to hit that 25 year mark.  But now the woman was a more experienced quilter and she figured out why she was having so much trouble.

It was those plastic templates that were being drawn around and cutting the fabric with scissors. If the cutting is not accurate, there is no way to make an accurate 1/4″ seam.  In 2009 she had a friend’s husband make acrylic templates from the original pattern so a rotary cutter could be used.  It was amazing what a difference it made.  Accurate cutting resulted in accurate piecing.

DWR-newtemplates

But what about the earlier piecing. Some of it had seams that would rip out if it was looked at hard.

A Solution I Can Live With

The decision was made to fix those spots which absolutely had to be fixed and leave the rest. It would show how the quilter’s skill had grown over the years.

The quilt wasn’t ready for her 25th anniversary – but the top was nearly finished.  The last seam was put in the top on January 5th, 2010.

dwrtop

Now that the top was finished, a backing had to be found. The backing was found in the stash. A shirting fabric picked up on a retreat with plans to use it on quilts made from recycled shirts.

dwrbackthread
A khaki thread was chosen. Quilters Dream Cotton Request was used for the batting. This Gloria Hartley stencil, purchased when the quilt was started and slightly modified would be the quilting design.

dwrquilting

The quilt was first loaded into her Q-Snap frame. The couple’s cat Seven approved of this.

dwrseven

Later she switched to a lap frame stuffed into a laundry basket which took up less space.

dwrhoop

The woman quilted on the quilt on and off for the next 4-1/2 years. Well, 3-1/2 years. There was a year where it sat in her living room untouched.

Just before the last stitches were put in, she had her husband do a few stitches.

dwrTed

The last quilting stitch was made on July 10, 2014.

Now it had to be bound. Most of the time the quilter machine stitched her binding both onto the quilt and then down, stitching in the ditch. But given the curves of this quilt, there was some questions as to if it would be possible.  Not to mention she had to make bias binding something she seldom did. So there was a delay. The binding was finally attached to the quilt on September 3, 2014.

dwrfrontbinding

She decided to hand stitch the binding down.  There are 30 rings along the edge of the quilt and could easily stitch one ring an evening. But there were other quilts to work on and new help to train.

catsandquilt

Butterscotch & Gracie joined the family toward the end of September and became the new Quality Control Cats.

The final binding stitches were put in the quilt on November 22nd and the  label was made and attached to the quilt.

dwr-label

The next day, before washing, it was placed on the bed for a photoshoot.

She still needs to wash it to get the marking and 25 years of accumulated dirt out of it, but it’s finished and in time for their 29th wedding anniversary on November 29, 2014.

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This quilt has been on so many UFO Challenge lists I’ve lost count. I’m linking up to Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday, and when the 4th quarter 2014 Finish Along opens I’ll link up there as well as the DWR is on the 4th quarter list.

New Hand Quilting Hoop

Wednesday around noon I placed an order for a 14″ lap frame and Jean Brown’s book 1,2,3…Quilt Finished from Jeans Impressions. It was delivered with my mail this morning around 9:30!

Now to find time to learn to use the frame and the Aunt Becky quilting Tool. Hum..I wonder where it and my deep recessed thimble are?

$10 Quilt Frame?


Not really, but we did only spend $10 on a pair of PVC pipe cutters to make my Q-Snap frame easier for me to use.

My husband found some 1 1/4″ PVC pipe in the garage that he no longer was using. We cut 4 pieces 3″ shorter than the Q-Snap short pieces. We also took off the lifts and now I can work on both sides of the frame and more importantly reach the middle. It’s not perfect (note the belts holding the quilt up off the floor), but it beats the heck out of spending big bucks for a frame that I might never use after I finish this quilt.

No Q-Snap parts were harmed during this retro fit.

The Quilting Has Begun

After a bit of running around this evening, I finally sat down and started quilting.  The top half of the photo is the music quilt.  I’m doing simple straight line quilting using the star points as guides.  It turns out I have to mark one side of the star, but I can use the guide on my walking foot for the second side of the star.    This is a large quilt (roughly 87 x 102) so I’m having to wrestle it a bit.  Hopefully there won’t be any running around Tuesday night and I can get more done on the quilt.

The bottom half is the hand quilting I was able to do in 30 minutes.  Actually, it is probably only 20 or 25 minutes as I’m watching M*A*S*H on DVDs and using it as my timer. I need to check to see how long each episode is and maybe “watch” two episodes and include my marking in the time.

The Hand Quilting is Complete!


On Josh’s Graduation Quilt.

Now I have to finish it. For the border, I’ve decided to quilt lines 2″ apart perpendicular to the edge of the quilt — like a pieced piano key border. Once I get that done, I’ll need to trim all the thread ends from my machine quilting, bind it and put a label on it. Who knows he might get it before the end of the year — only 17 months after he graduated.

Next to the Last Block


This is the next to the last block to be hand quilted before I can pull the quilt off the frame. I finished it up Sunday night after a two week hiatus. I pushed myself a couple of weeks ago and aggravated my wrist. Needless to say there was no hand quilting for a while and now I’m limiting my time at the frame. I’ll miss my self-imposed deadline of October 15th, but since my DWR is not going to be finished by then I still have time — my guess is it will take another week — for both.

October 2009 Quilting Goals

More of the same this month.

* Keep up with the SBS BOW

* Finish the hand quilting on Josh’s Quilt – needs to be off the frame by 10/15

* Finish piecing the DWR – top needs to be done by 10/15

* Hand quilt 2 rings on DWR

* Complete Finishing Instructions for both sizes of Kansas Spirit BOM

* Machine quilt borders on Josh’s Quilt

* Make at least 4 make-up SBS blocks

* Decide on the quilting for Jeremiah’s quilt

* Work on Ladder to the Star sashings

* Keep Scraps Cut Up

Review of September 2009 Quilting Goals


Another month has gone by, so it’s time to review what I accomplished this month.

* Complete remaining 2 sets of blocks for the SBS Brown/Blue Swap

Finished and in the mail by 9/8

* Keep up with the SBS BOW

It was close, but all blocks were made and turned in on time.

* Work on Josh’s Quilt – needs to be off the frame by 10/15

3 1/2 blocks hand quilted — 1 1/2 blocks to go!

* Work on DWR – top needs to be done by 10/15

12 rings added to the quilt and 6 more are partially pieced

* Complete Finishing Instructions for both sizes of Kansas Spirit BOM

Small quilt needs one more correction. Large quilt about 50% done. (the easy 50%) 🙂

* Quilt a baby quilt

Ran out of time.

* Keep Scraps Cut Up

Well my scraps were cut up, but my friend’s scraps have filled the basket back up!

I also cut the gold fabric for my Ladder to the Stars quilt and I managed to not start anything new. What more can a girl ask for who has more UFOs and Quilt Tops than she can count on her fingers and toes?

Next month will be more of the same. I’ve got my list ready to go.