Tradition!!

I decided to get back to work on the big churn dash quilt. And let me say right here–if you are looking for someone to learn about traditional piecing from–ITS NOT ME. As much as I tried to do everything so carefully, I sometimes had a hard time fitting things together! I read and re-read the instructions in the magazine. Oh, hmm. This is a KING SIZED quilt! Definitely the largest quilt I have ever made. So I would say that a quilt this big is not ideal for my method of putting a quilt sandwich together (steaming the layers and then pinning.) But here I am documenting the final corner of the quilt sandwich being put together. You can see that I carefully folded the quilt as I finished each section. That was a good idea.

And then, since it was so carefully folded, I decided to transfer it to the quilting table just like that. That also turned out to be a good idea. I have already quilted two out of the five rows of churn dash blocks. It was easier than I thought to manipulate such a large quilt.

And then, re-reading the instructions, and staring at the picture over and over (remember, I wanted to make this quilt just like the one in the magazine…) I found a mug with a 3 inch opening, made a plastic circle template from that, and drew the pomegranate designs in the setting triangles. I free-hand drew the leaves as they were in the photograph. It was fun just following the lines to quilt this!

I am very excited about this quilt. There will be lots of “fill” to go back and do after I get the main design done. But the quilting is moving along much faster than I expected it to!

Quilting and Stitching Along

Last weekend I went to the Pacific International Quilt Festival (fantastic!) and in less than a week I will be in Houston for the big show! Its my first time to go to Houston, and I am going with my BFF, so am totally excited about the experience.

In between I have been stitching away on the ‘many crosses’ quilt. I started out with some diagonal stitching on some of the crosses, and then didn’t know where to go with it. BFF suggested spirals, and I love those, so when I came home from PIQF, I found a leftover block from that quilt and did a few spirals on it, then tacked it up next to the real quilt on the design wall. I could see right away that that was too distracting, and the thought came into my head “you need to quilt each of these crosses individually.” And just as quick as that, I was off and quilting. It made me so happy to have a plan. Here’s a few shots of what I’ve been doing.

In the late afternoon, and into the evening, I watch TV shows and stitch away on the little squares quilt that I put together just for the purpose of having something to hand stitch. At first, it was disconcerting to try to do any stitching on these little two inch squares. But the more I’ve done, the more I’ve gotten into it. Each one is a little composition on its own. Some I am following the print of the fabric and using that as a guideline for my stitching. Others I just do whatever I want to on top of the print. I think there are about 150 squares on this quilt, and last night I counted 75 of them already stitched. Its really amazing how much you can accomplish by hand when you just keep working at it.

I probably won’t be back to blog until I return from Houston. Oh, and then I have only a few days at home before I leave for my workshop with Maria Shell! And then I’m never leaving home again 🙂