Friday, January 17, 2014

Not What I'd Planned

 It was 45 degrees here today but I decided that Jenni of Jacaranda is right. It's summer and we should expect the weather to be hot. I was going to sit and do some hand stitching to stay cool but thought I'd start quilting this quilt to get into the swing of things before I tackled the larger Mrs Williams. This is only a smaller quilt of 44" x 66" and I had planned to do some free motion quilting but this quilt really just needed a plainer type of quilting so I quilted it in a hanging diamond pattern by quilting through the hexagons. The stitching is vertical in one direction and diagonal across the other.
   Originally this was going to be a millennium quilt using fabrics I swapped with quilters around the world, so that tells you how long the fabric has been waiting to be used. I started a top but the design wasn't working because I received lots of dark fabrics but few lights. I unpicked them and decided to make a couple of smaller projects and as I wanted a hand stitching project I started these 1" hexagons.
The size was determined by the wish to make a quilt for a future grand daughter and that is why it's bound in a lovely hot pink fabric rather than a red or dark blue as I was planning. My youngest DD has requested it to be put away for her future daughter so this one will go into a  hope chest and if she doesn't have any daughters, I'm sure one of my nieces will be happy to receive it for one of their children. I stayed cool while I quilted it and stitched the binding down by hand as I used a fan directed onto me as well as having the air conditioning on. I was so pleased that I'd finished it that I started quilting my Mrs Williams quilt. At the moment I'm only stitching around all the blocks to stabilize them but I am further along than if I'd just given in to the heat and avoiding quilting until the weather cools.
  So I thank you Jenni for reminding me that although it's hot I can still get some quilting done. It's a pretty little quilt and better finished than in pieces, and it also got me started with my bigger quilting project. I'm off to bed now as I have several nights to work now.
 Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs, Jan Mac

2 comments:

  1. Jan, that quilt is so lovely! An heirloom quilt for some lucky lady in your family in the distant future.
    You've been very busy on your own projects since you decided not to spend so much time on charity quilts; it's always interesting to see what you are working on each time you post here :-)

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  2. Lovely quilt Jan. It was very hot, but I managed quite a bit of hand sewing.

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