Hand Piecing

I believe I have confessed in earlier posts that I do love to hand piece. Over the years I've completed maybe 3 large quilt-tops the 'old-fashioned way.' With the speed and accuracy of our new-fangled gadgets, very few quilters are willing to take the time to piece by hand. I find that it is perfect for evenings when watching TV, or when traveling. When the kids were younger, I took hand-piecing projects to track meets, and to work on in the car when waiting on them after play practice or whatever.

On one trip to Europe, I packed a zip-lock freezer bag with circles, needle, thread and clippers to make yo-yos. That was fun.

So, I do enjoy handwork.

Over the past several sessions I've had with my girlfriends in the Frankfort group, I've had my little box of 2.5" squares. Originally, I was strict about making 9-patches. After a time, though, I ran out of enough matching fabrics to get a decent 9-patch, so I switched off and began making scrappy 16-patch blocks. Here are some of my recent blocks.

I know you are wondering what I am going to do with them, and I don't rightly know at this point. I had given some thought to adding flying geese points to these blocks, thus making them the centers of stars. I still might do that. But, honestly, I don't really know. I will just make more, and let ideas percolate for awhile. I think we all do that, don't we?

Here are 2 recent 9-patches. They are such fun to make and go together so fast. I will definitely be making more. I don't yet have enough made for a good-sized quilt top, so I'll keep stitching!

Teaching at OU-C has seriously cut into my quilting and sewing time, so while these little blocks don't seem like such a big deal, they are about all I can accomplish with the limited time I've got. Now, I do have a couple of large quilts going, too, but I haven't been able to touch them this week at all. I had hoped that one would be ready for the long-arm by now. The other I think I will share with you -- tomorrow!!

Happy Quilting, Friends!