lily’s found her groove!
2008
Fellow stitchers – I have finally, after 14 loooooong years, found my quilting groove! And by golly it feels good! :-)
I was sitting here with this …
… reading my latest edition of American Patchwork and Quilting and admiring this …
and I suddenly realised – omg, this is my style of quilting!
So, armed with little balls of thread, a nice big needle, my laptop, the magazine, ruler and pencil, I headed on up to bed where the French Farmhouse quilt has been since I neatly folded it the day after I began quilting it. I had grimaced at my handquilting as I laid it on the armchair in the bedroom, fearing I would never, ever finish quilting it.
Part of my despair was not just time, but strength. I have recently read, and I cannot remember where or who, that the quilting is the skeleton of the quilt and that it must be quilted lots if it is a big quilt as it will need the strength. The French Farmhouse was heading towards serious bone density problems.
No more! I LOVE what I have done tonight – it is definitely Lily friendly and in keeping with the Lily style – simple, naive and efficient. Yep, that’s me … ;-)
So here’s what we started with – flimsy stitches heading for a hip replacement …
Here’s where we went instead – I have a wee bit of a tendency to kink out to the right with my down stitch.
But I straightened that up …
And here’s the finished centre of the block – in less than 45 minutes – and this is the first go – imagine how fast I will get when I am marking my lines on a desk instead of my knees and have practiced lots! My, this stitching looks like it will endure decades of use and is beautifully in keeping with the simplicity of the quilt!
I’m going to get some white thread to do a few borders in the borders. Awesome! Now I just need to work out how to get ink out of this exceptionally silly pen – after three weeks of trying – nothing! Got any tips?
p.s. Carolann – here’s your lovely boy! We picked him up safe and sound, brought him home to toasted waffles and raspberries, bows and laundry pegs in the backyard (as opposed to bows and arrows, apparently laundry pegs are much more fun), dinner with big Pete in tow and home in plenty of time for his early start tomorrow – I’m sending you strong thoughts and lots of love :-)
8 comments
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The quilting is FANTASTIC! It adds so much to the block! You have found your groove! About the pen, I pretty much gave up on mine because I am impatient, I think. Either I have no line or way too much line having marked and re-marked waiting for the line to appear. I hear it’s a great pen…
I love your quilting! Looks like the kind I would like to do. If you don’t mind my asking, what kind of thread did you use?
Keep up the beautiful work! I really enjoy your blog.
Blessings,
Diane
Aha! You have discovered the joy of big stitching! I love quilting quilts this way – especially primitive and folk art quilts. Faster for sure, just a strong, and creates a great look. I’m so very happy for you that you’ve found this groove!
Your new quilting style looks great! I love those moments where things start to make sense. I can’t wait to see more. I started reading your blog a few weeks ago and look forward to each new post. You make beautiful things and write about them so well. Have fun with the quilting. Love Stacy
I saw that too in the magazine. Its my style too! I love it.
Lily!! It looks wonderful! This is the type of quilting I wish I could do! So so pretty…
Congratulations on finding ‘your style’. You will enjoy the job so much now that you are enjoying the finished look! I think it looks great.
That’s such a different quilting style, but very whimsical. I like it!!!
Good job on your work thus far!! :)