Big Stitch Quilting

Ah..., what a crazy, busy weekend. Late Saturday afternoon I decided to load my girls in the car and head to the city (an hour drive from where we live) so they could get Easter dresses. An old tradition around here, but one that's been neglected the last couple years due to the bad economy.

Hand quilting 'Spring Forward'

We had a great time, but I guess my little (ha!) girls are not die-hard shoppers anymore. They've lost the habit somewhere in the reorganization of life as they knew it before the forced frugal regime.*wink  As soon as they realized that finding shoes to go with their lovely, new dresses would start shaving time out of their precious day off, they bailed on me super quick and started talking about Zappos. Hey, what? I capitulated quickly once I thought it all through though. Anything that results in more quilting time for mama, I'm good. Back to my hoop and big stitch quilting adventures!

Stitching the border

So far I've used the #5 Perle Cotton thread on the flower, the narrow brown sashing and now the brown border too. I'll be straight up with you about this thread, it's not my favorite size to work with. I do love the chunky look to it, but it is much harder (initially) to pull through the fabric without making a run. I finally remembered the tip Meredithe (thank you from the bottom of my heart!) gave me about pulling the knot through the back side of the quilt when starting and then of course when finishing up too. I've forgotten the finishing up part a couple times and about put a monster hole in my quilt trying to 'pop' the knot through. Believe me, pulling the knot from the back works out MUCH better. For some reason it doesn't leave as many little tiny runs in the fabric pulling straight from the back and if/when it does, I'm not as stressed about the results. Win, win.

Stitching tulips

To my surprise, (I'm always startled when an idea presents itself out of the clear blue and I immediately implement it without weighing pros and cons for days on end) I decided to combine several different sizes of thread in this quilt. I've combined big stitch quilting with machine quilting before, but on this quilt, I'm combining #5 Perle Cotton big stitch quilting with regular hand quilting stitching too. I wanted some of the stitching to recede a little so the regular hand quilting is in areas where I don't want the stitching to compete or distract from the boldness of the #5 thread. If I'm going to the trouble of using #5 Perle Cotton, I definitely want it to shine!

I've also used the #8 Perle Cotton thread to outline the stem of the flower and on the leaves. It's a very interesting combination to me and as I'm switching back and forth from the different threads, it's extremely easy to notice (and appreciate) how much smoother it is to just 'slide' the #8 thread through the fabric than the it is with the #5 thread--lots less resistance as the thread is not nearly as thick. Then, when I switch to the regular hand quilting weight of thread, it absolutely feels like I'm flying in comparison. No kidding--huge difference!

If there's nothing else to learn from this quilt, I'm figuring out that the true meditative qualities derived from hand quilting are much more apparent with regular hand quilting thread than from big stitch type quilting. But don't worry, I am NOT giving up my Perle Cotton love anytime soon. Just commenting on the obvious!