Hand Quilting

Yes, I am back to hand quilting with quite a bit of fervor, actually. Fall Foliage, my hand quilting project, had been put in storage from approximately early December last year to about a week ago - so basically 6+ months. In that time, I'd forgotten how very close I was to being done. Realizing my closeness to the finish line, I have been exceedingly motivated to, at long last, complete this quilt.

When I set the Q-Snap frame back up, it was clear that most of the remaining quilting involved doing the borders. A study of the photo above shows my marking method as well as a border under on the far left. The Q-Snap is a wonderful frame for quilting, but it is hard to quilt close to the edges, i.e. borders, of the quilt. Another problem I faced was keeping my crosshatch stitching lines straight and parallel with others. It was easy to do when I could follow the lines of the pieced blocks, but in the borders, I lost that built-in guideline.

How I solved the problem was to remove the whole quilt from the Q-Snap, take the quilt to the kitchen island, and mark the entire border with a longer ruler and tailor's chalk. This has made so much difference! I am just whizzing around this quilt now, quilting these borders in record time.

I am enjoying this finish so much that I find myself considering which quilt to hand-quilt next. Go figure. I really can do straight lines so much faster than curved. I have tried intricate quilting patterns with such poor results. Since I have the long arm machine, I really do not have a desire to force myself to learn curved quilting. I can cross-hatch and be satisfied.

Anyone doing a close inspection of this quilt will definitely see that my "straight" lines are at times off, but I continue to be driven by the notion that DONE is better than PERFECT. 

Every day of the week.

Have you seen The Sound of Freedom yet? It was our plan to see it this afternoon, as the weather called for rain. Well, the sun is out, and I am not seeing any approaching weather systems on the radar, so maybe will will wait to see it. We are definitely going to go at some point.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

ADDED LATER: I just searched my archives for posts related to Fall Foliage, and discovered that I had this out briefly in January of this year! I couldn't have done much on it, as we were in Florida twice this winter and later hosted Easter. I don't even remember working on it. My post says I did, and I wouldn't have had any reason to lie, but it must not have been worth remembering! *shaking my head*