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Friday, October 9, 2009

Dutch Treat Quilting

My friend, Crispy, wanted to see progress pics of the quilting on my Dutch Treat quilt. She's a master hand quilter and even in my best dreams I'll never reach that level, so I hesitate to even share these.




I'm definitely not a hand quilter! And I can't quilt well in a frame, especially something like these little blocks which require lots of frequent, tiny direction changes. I'm quilting small sections (this piece has five horizontal rows) at a time and in my lap. This allows me to continually turn the piece to outline all these tiny shapes.




First I quilted in the ditch around the sashing. Now I'm going around all the shapes, keeping the quilting always in the white fabric. These blocks are 4" finished, so some shapes don't have very much room left for quilting between the shapes. That means I'm often quilting not only through both layers of top fabric (none of the blue is trimmed away so that the shadowing is even) but right through the turn under allowance of the reverse applique. The end result is that I'm most often quilting through five layers total. Hard to keep stitches small and even, especially for a novice hand quilter like me.




But I'm enjoying the process as I work on this in the evening while watching TV. And over all I think I'm going to be happy with it. I'll have a real sense of accomplishment I hope.








While I'm sharing progress pics...here are some blocks I've made over the last month for a darker version of "Remembering Grandma". I'm mostly using Civil War repros.



We've received over 4" of rain in the last day and a half. I hope it's done now. Lots of flooding in the area and our police officer granddaughter has had to deal with accidents and stranded motorists. We pray she and everyone stays safe.



12 comments:

Sherry said...

Hi Mary I think your rain is going away it looks like were getting some of it now.I can't believe how much you have sone on your hand quilting great job. Keep it up. I'm getting my new baby tomorrow but how sad I can't get to use it till next weekend so it will have to sit for a week with me looking at it.i told myself that I have a few things that I have to finish before I can start using it.

Crispy said...

Oh Mary the quilting you are doing is wonderful!! The quilt is taking on such great dimention and I look forward to seeing the finished quilt...no pressure, just whenever LOL.

Crispy

Erin said...

you're doing a phenomenal job! it looks wonderful. :)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

Looking great!! and you are moving along quickly on it I think.
Karen
http://karensquilting.com/blog/

Geta Grama said...

This quilt will be a treasure ! I am sure your hand quilting is wonderful.
And the white looks so nice on those dark blocks.

Micki said...

I love the Dutch Treat quilt!
Micki

Rose Marie said...

You are doing a wonderful job .... keep it up but only at your own pace!

Karen said...

Your new darker background blocks are very good. Something I would like having!
Just keep up your work on the hand quilting. Your quilt deserves to be hand quilted. Looks like you are doing a good job. And the more you hand quilt, the better you will get, though I think it looks very good now.

Annelies said...

Being Dutch I can say that your Dutch Treat looks very beautiful !

Enjoy your weekend !

Donna said...

I think your quilting looks beautiful. I keep saying I'm going to do some hand quilting one of these days. I haven't for a long time, and I know I did enjoy it.

Susan said...

From where I sit, the quilting looks fantastic! It looks like you're really moving along with it too!

Elly D said...

WOW! You are going great guns with this project!! Your quilting is looking wonderful! Great job!! Ellyx