I don't know if this qualifies as match stick quilting or not. My lines are 0.5" and 0.75" apart. I quilted out from the central diamond, and then out to the edges.
I had two people tell me to darn the ends in, so I did that. Is that what everyone else does, or do you just cut them off close to the quilt? I'd be interested to know.
I'm surprised at how long it took to machine quilt using this method. My friend Jo used Free Motion stipple quilting on a whole quilt and it only took her one hour. This quilt is only 40" by 40" and it took quite a few hours for the machine quilting.
On Saturday I attended the first Needlelace lesson, and as expected, made minimal progress.
Yes, this is two hours work, but I did get instructions on how to make all of the middle flower before the next lesson in a month's time, and how to prepare the base for another flower. Since Saturday morning I've done a bit more:
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| two rows of button hole stitch on the outer ring |
My eyes do get tired doing this, so I've been swapping to my Northern Expressions Needlework Celtic Snow piece when that happens:
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| Celtic Snow by Northern Expressions Needlework |
Yes, both of these pieces are on the same lovely hand dyed linen. I ordered it for the Celtic Snow, and found I had enough left over for the Needlelace. The threads are light for one and dark for the other, so the fact that I've just the same linen will hardly be noticeable when they are finished.
I hope you have a good week and get lots done. School holidays start next week for us and I will be driving my boys to study tutorials and cricket coaching, so I don't expect to get a lot done then.
19 comments:
Your Trellis Crossroad quilt looks gorgeous and I can imagine that it wasn't easy to hand quilt. Batik is very tightly woven, isn't it. But you did a stellar job. Also your embroidery projects look great.
love your quilt! I like working with batiks myself and haven't had trouble with hand quilting them, but you really have to change your needle often don't you!
Straight line quilting takes me a while as well. I did matchstick quilting (which I think is 1/2" apart or less) on a baby sized quilt and I had to do it over a couple of days. One of the other reasons I chose stippling because I knew straight lines would take ages!
Love the Trellis Crossroads - the colours - sublime :)
the quilt looks great, I did not know that batiks can be difficult to quilt will have to remember that. The needlelace is coming along well and also the cross stitch. Enjoy the holiday with your boys
The trellis quilt is glowing! I love the colors.
And the needle lace is looking quite lovely. I like seeing the progress.
I don't darn my ends when I SLQ. All the ends get cut off and sealed again when I bind . Your hand stitching is so intricate!
I'd definitely call it matchstick quilting, and it looks great. I have heard that Batiks are hard work to quilt. I backstitch over each starting and ending point, if you just cut the ends off, won't the stitching start to come undone? I'm too lazy to bury the ends which is why i backstitch and then cut them off. The needlelace looks like a lot of work to me, I know how long those tiny stitches take!
I can't believe you would hand quilt batik fabric; you must have broken several needles too. Batiks are too stiff and tightly woven to be hand quilted. Your quilting is beautiful!!!
The quilt is gorgeous, what beautiful colours. I have never patched with batik fabrics before, they look a treat.
Beautiful quilt! And doing needle lace like that surely takes a lot of time, it looks wonderful, too!
Your quilting is gorgeous and you NeedleLace is stunning! That is talent!
I love the trellis quilt , the colours and luminous
Your quilting and stitching are all looking great Wendy. The quilting you have chosen suits the quilt well, even though it may be tedious. I knot and bury any quilting thread ends from my quilt back for a neat finish - is that what you mean by darning the ends?
the batiks really shine in your quilt so they were definitely worth the effort. I'm a slow straight line quilter too and it uses lots of thread but I like the effect!
Absolutely stunning! The black and bold colors makes me think of those old drawing deals where you scratched away the black stuff on top and the beautiful colors were underneath it! Beautiful!
Love the exuberant use of colour in your trellis crossroads. I feel that the use of Batiks is so under rated by a lot of quilters - such a shame.
I knot and bury the thread ends when quilting.
I can see why you have a month between needle lace classes. That will take time and patience! The blue of the linen is beautiful.
Well! I just snip the threads off close to the quilt, as I was taught, but it seems that burying the threads is the "proper" way to do things. I find that if I do a little reverse over where I start and end the quilting, or do a few stitches in 0 length, the quilting doesn't come under with time. I like the vibrancy of some batiks colours, but I dislike the fabric. I'm not keen on the look, but mostly I don't like the stiffness and feel of batik. I imagine it would be awful to try hand quilting on!
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