Hand Quilted Sampler

My Hand Quilted Sampler quilt has a long and chequered past, but it's finally finished.  

I started this quilt in a class with Kaffe Fassett in Wellington, New Zealand in January 2018.  Yes, five long years ago!!

January 2018 in Wellington

We set out to make the Green Diamonds quilt from Quilts in Ireland, but when I got home and started to piece my diamonds together I found they my cutting hadn't been very precise, and it was going to be difficult to piece the quilt top.  

I don't give up on things easily, so I set it aside for a while.  Then when I was at Tote and Gloat in Palmerston North in 2019 I had a good long chat with Racheldaisy from Australia, and it dawned on me that I didn't have to make Green Diamonds if it wasn't working out.  I could take the pieces that I had cut and repurpose them into something new.  

So that's what I did.  I pulled out all of the red and green fabrics I'd bought for the Green Diamonds quilt and I designed my own pattern.

Then I decided that I could turn it into a hand quilted sampler and use it to show people all of the options that are available with hand quilting.  So I quilted each section with a different thread and a different design.  

quilting along the lines in the fabric

using the lines already drawn in the flower

following the fabric design to fill in the area

1/4" inch from the edge for the triangles

I took this quilt to Stitch Witches in Dunedin and they can display in the shop until I next visit Dunedin in 2024.  

Finished size 47" x 47"

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Aurifil's Whole Cloth challenge with Paintbrush Studio Fabrics

A few weeks ago Aurifil sent some of their Artisans a spool of thread and some fabric from Paintbrush Studio Fabrics Paintbox Palette.  The challenge was to use these two items to create a mini whole cloth quilt. About 20 of us took part in the challenge, and Aurifil will  blog about all of the results at the end of August.

Here's what I made:

It's a bright orange cushion / pillow that I hand quilted freehand.

The colour is actually "Goldenrod" which is one of Paintbrush Studio's Trend Palette colours for 2019. I have to admit that I didn't know what Goldenrod is, but a quick Google told me it's a plant with bright yellow flowers. Thank you Wikipedia.

The Artisans could specify which weight thread we wanted to receive, but we had no idea which colour fabric we would receive.

I requested 12wt thread because I knew I'd be hand quilting my whole cloth.  I received thread 4150 which is variegated and matches the fabric very well.

I decided I would try to quilt free hand - which is harder than it looks.  I took inspiration from this piece of Alison Glass fabric, and drew some outlines with my blue wash away pen.

Then I proceeded to fill in the gaps.  I kept drawing more lines to get the quilting denser.

I always use a hoop when I hand quilt, and my favourite needles are John James Chenille size 24.  They have a large eye for the thicker threads, but a very sharp point.  I also wear an open clover thimble on the third finger of my right hand (I'm right handed).  I use it to swivel the needle and push it through.  You can read more about hand quilting on the tab at the top of the page or by clicking here.  

As the idea to make a cushion / pillow started forming, I decided that I needed to border my whole cloth centre piece with something with pattern.  I dived into my Kaffe Fassett stash, and found Kite Tails which was just right.  I machine quilted strips onto my centre piece with Aurifil 2145 as shown above and below.

So there we are! A fun challenge successfully completed.  Thank you Aurifil and Paintbrush Studio Fabrics.  I've tried something new and I enjoyed it.

Aurifil will be putting up links to all the Artisan's whole cloths at the end of August.  You can follow their blog Auribuzz, or wait for their posts on Facebook or Instagram.

Hand quilting my Cartwheel quilt

It's winter here in New Zealand and that means that it rains a lot.  Our country doesn't get to be so green without a lot of rain.  I need something bright and cheery to work on during winter, so I decided to start hand quilting my Kaffe Fassett cartwheel quilt.

I'm following the advice in the pattern and quilting along the black lines in the background Parasols fabric.  I'm using Aurifil 12wt in black to quilt down the centre of these lines.  I don't have to mark any quilting lines - I'm just following the lines on the fabric.  I love how it's resulting in puffy areas in the quilt - partly due to the wool batting in the quilt.  See below.

I love the Aurifil 12wt threads for hand quilting because they are soft and cottony, and sit nicely on the fabrics.

I wasn't sure how I would quilt the cartwheels themselves.  Sometimes you just have to try out some options before the answer becomes clear.

The colours I considered using

I tried marking some circles and quilting them with the thinner 28wt thread by Aurifil.  But, I wasn't happy with how the quilted circles looked.  The numerous radiating seams were interfering with my stitch length and I couldn't get the stitches looking even.  The quilted circles were making the cartwheels look very busy, even with 28wt thread.

Usually I like to see the quilting on my quilts, but in this case I decided that it would probably be better to just quilt in the ditch and let the fabrics do the talking.  So I'm using multiple different colours of Aurifil 28wt to hand quilt in the ditch on the cartwheels.  Here's my first cartwheel quilted in the ditch.  I like how it looks - clean and uncluttered. I did consider quilting down the centre of each segment of the cartwheel, but that was going to make it look too busy again.

It's very hard to photograph - I promise you it looks better in real life.

Only after I settle on a method do I go back and unpick my earlier attempts.  I like to have both options in the quilt so I can compare them side by side and make my final decision.

This pattern is in Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Grandeur book, although I'll warn you that it's quite hard to get hold of the Parasols background fabric now.  The pattern uses Parasols in black, but I have used the blue colourway.  I couldn't get enough fabric to make the quilt full sized, so I have made a smaller square quilt.

It's sunny here today so I plan to go out for a walk - it's definitely too wet for any gardening. 

Picnic Quilt

My Picnic Quilt is finished.  I love how the pattern emerges when it's viewed from a distance. 

This quilt is made from blocks that I won in our Block of the Month draw at Capital Quilters.  I did add a few more blocks myself to balance out the colour scheme in some areas.

I hand quilted it with Aurifil 12wt.  I initially intended to just do straight lines running through each block, but I felt it needed more stabilising, so I added echo quilting in grey in the opposite direction to make each of the darker rows stand out. 

I chose a brick red colour for the binding because it works well with the red spot I used on the internal border.

the binding, before it's turned to the back

This quilt has more red in it than anything I've ever made before!

The finished quilt is 76" x 76". I used wool batting so it's lovely and soft.

Finishing takes so long....

Do you find that? You start new quilts with great gusto, and think they won't take long to make, but somehow when you get to the finishing stages you get distracted by new ideas, and the pile of unfinished quilts gets bigger and bigger.

I've accepted that April and May just have to be my finishing months this year.  This year I've entered three different shows!! Yes, from never having entered a show to entering three in one year.  It's just the way it's worked out.

1. Capital Quilters 12 x 12 Exhibiton

We're having a 12 x 12 exhibition at Capital Quilters from 2-12 August this year, and I handed in my three entries on Saturday.  I can't show you them yet because the quilts are being judged and I have to keep my entries secret until then.

If you live in Wellington, or even further afield like Levin or Palmerston North, do come for a look.  It's fee entry and from the few I saw on Saturday there's going to be some great minis on display.  We already had over 30 entries on Saturday and the main hand in day isn't for another month yet.

2. Sydney Quilt Show - Quilt NSW

I'm a member of Quilt NSW in Australia (New South Wales).  It's a huge guild that welcomes overseas members too.  Their annual show will be held at the Sydney Convention Centre from June 22-25 and two of my quilts will be in the show! My la passacaglia and Oh! Christmas Tree will both on display.

I'm very excited because I'm going over to Sydney for the show and it will be the biggest quilt show I've ever been to.  I've made lots of online friends who live in Sydney, and it will be nice to meet them face to face.  I hear the stalls at the show are great too, so I better put my credit card on hold until then. I'll be there on Thursday and Friday if you're looking for me.

3.  Quilt Symposium Christchurch

Our national symposium is in October and entries close on 13 June.  I've been working furiously on two quilts for most of this year.  One is a secret and I won't post any photos until the exhibition in October, but the other is my Possum Magic quilt which everyone has seen throughout it's three year life.  There's one category for quilts totally made by one person (which I'm entering) and then another category for quilts made by more than one person.  Possum Magic will be in the second category because it's a group effort.  You can read more about the round robin I was in here.

My centre block that I made

I'm still hand quilting the final sections of the quilt, but I really hope to have it ready for photographing this coming weekend.  I'm using Aurifil 12wt and 28wt on this quilt.  I use the 12wt for all the visible decorative quilting, and 28wt for when I'm quilting in the ditch. The red spools are 12wt and the grey ones are 28wt.

I'm not aiming for prizes, but just having my quilts hanging in the show would be great.  It's a juried show, so not every quilt gets accepted.

I always use a hoop when I'm hand quilting.

So that's what I've been up to lately.  I'm really looking forward to starting something new once all these deadlines have passed.

Hand quilting threads

Wow! There's been a lot of reaction to my last post on Celebrating Hand Quilting - thank you everyone who left a comment, blogged about their own hand quilting or joined the Celebrate Hand Quilting Facebook group.  I guess I've made a small contribution towards keeping hand quilting current in the 21st century.

If you're itching to give hand quilting a go, and don't know where to start, I highly recommend this video by Sarah Fielke - it's how I learnt.  I watched it again and again until I was happy with my own technique.

I going to try to answer some of your questions about hand quilting here and in future posts. My next post will be about the designs I choose to hand quilt on my quilts, but today's post is about threads, needles, thimbles and hoops.

Many of you have asked me what threads I use for big stitch hand quilting.  The answer is - a variety.  I have many colours, thicknesses and types of threads to chose from.  Each quilt needs something different, and I try to make each quilt different too.

I'll explain each thread and then offer a comparison too.

1.  DCM Perle 8. 

This thread is great.  It's probably the most cost effect option in my collection and comes in a wide range of colours.  It's what I used for my first few years of big stitch hand quilting.  Here's a tip - when you get near the end of the ball and the card with the label starts to fall off, write the number inside the reel with a permanent marker.  Then you can buy a new ball without trying to colour match.

2.  Sue Spargo Eleganza perle 8 by Wonderfil

These threads are gorgeous. Sue Spargo developed the colours in conjunction with Wonderfil.  I used these threads for some of the embroidery on my #instastitchwithSue mystery quilt - see here. These threads are the same thickness as the DMC perle 8 above, and can be used for hand quilting.  However, they are justifiably more expensive than DMC perle 8.

3. Wonderfil Razzle and Dazzle 

Wonderfil have made some gorgeous shiny rayon threads that I like to use.

Razzle is perle 8 thickness and it comes in plain or variegated colours (top 5 threads in photo above).  It's quite difficult to control because it's rayon and therefore slippery, but it does give a lovely result as a special feature.  Remember to keep your thread length quite short because it does fray easily. I wouldn't attempt to quilt a whole quilt with it.

Dazzle is also perle 8 thickness and it has a built in sparkle! The great thing about this thread is that the sparkle is embedded and doesn't get in the way as you pull the needle through the fabric. I have quilted a whole dark quilt in a combination of Razzle and Dazzle and it was fine to use.

4. Valdani 12wt and 8wt

Some hand quilters just love Valdani and use it all the time.  It's very expensive in New Zealand, and not many shops stock it, so I only have one tray of 12wt that I bought online.  I like using it, but I'm not rushing out to buy more colours. I find that the 12wt is like a skinnier version of DMC perle 8. (Unlike DMC perle 12 which doesn't feel like a skinnier version of DMC perle 8.)

5. Aurifil 12wt and 28wt

I've saved the best til last! I have become an Aurifil convert over the past year.  I love the range of colours available and the different thread weights. 

I have their thread chart and can lay a true sample of the thread against fabrics to choose the right colours to order.  I started buying the 28wt to hand quilt my la passacaglia.  I knew perle 8 was going to be too thick for the tiny pieces in that quilt, so wanted a thinner thread that came in a range of colours.  

Aurifil's 28wt is very strong, and similar to Gutermann quilting cotton.See the bottom two threads in the photo above - Mettler 40 quilting cotton (black) against Aurifil 28wt (blue).

Aurifil's 12wt (teal thread on red spool above) is the same thickness as Valdani 12wt (pink ball).

I do like Aurifil's 12wt now and use it for most of my hand quilting.

Comparison

top to bottom:

Wonderfil Razzle and Dazzle - these are the thickest.  Although the state they are equivalent to perle 8, I find them to be fractionally thicker.

DMC perle 8 and Sue Spargo Eleganza - these are both the same thickness - perle 8.

Valdani perle 12 and Aurifil 12wt - these are both the same thickness - perle 12 (thinner than perle 8).

Aurifil 28wt - thin and strong

Mettler 40 wt - thinnest and what I use for sections that won't be seen. 

See the difference? click on the photo to enlarge it if necessary.

So that's the threads I use.  I hope that was helpful.  

As for other hand quilting necessities:

I use a Clover open sided thimble on the third finger of my top hand. I don't have anything on my other hand, and never seem to end up with callouses. 

I use Clover hera markers and my quilting ruler to mark my quilting lines (or sometimes a chalk pencil).

I use John James Chenille needles number 24 because they have big eyes to accommodate the thick threads, and very sharp points.  I use them for all the threads above because I'm used to them and like them.

I usually have 4 needles threaded at once so I can quilt an area before I have to move my hoop to a new area. 

I have a large round, wooden quilting hoop, and I always use it when I'm hand quilting.  It keeps my tension nice and even. My hoop is 18" diameter, and I wouldn't recommend going any larger unless you have very long forearms.  

I hope that covers everything.  If not, leave me a question below and I'll try to answer your question next time.