I haven't hand quilted for a few years, used to love it but my arthritis in my hands
put a stop to that.
Feeling the need to sit, relax and hand stitch again (with the aid of
good pain medications) I'm working
on my Paintbox quilt - just look under Labels on my side bar
for older posts.
Because I like these fabrics to take centre stage
the quilting will be minimal, just outlining the central wedges
in the ditch with
a beautifully variegated Oliver Twist cotton which blends in rather than
shouting "here I am, in fact you can barely see it at all.
Unpicking an older quilt is quite a relaxing
task for Sunday Slow Stitching! This is a wall hanging made
many years ago, lots of black fabric which had faded badly.
Some components could be salvaged, the central log cabin portion was
made from my own dyed silks, lilac silks from one of my
daughter's ball dresses and a few pieces of bought
hand made paper with silk which I dyed.
I was hoping my border of Flying Geese - again the dyed paper/silk - could be saved,
it was always quite fragile and over the years of storing it's become
really fragile, I could only save the piece below.
So that was my stitching on Sunday and here we are with another
Monday morning, washing out on the line making the most of the sun
and the windy weather.
Floors swept and shopping put away, the rest of the day
is mine!!
Linking up now with
13 comments:
Unpicking is a sad thing... I hope you can save lots of it.
Enjoy your hand quilting!
Very wet, very windy and quite cold down here, we lit the fire!! Doing some more of the 150 Canadian Women blocks, almost enough to do a post with them. Love those fabrics in the logs, gentle and serene.And what a fab thread for hand stitching.
It must be frustrating when your hands give you pain. That's some pretty fabrics you are trying to preserve.
Ouch to the arthritis - my husband has just been diagnosed with it in his hand. Love that Oliver Twist thread.
I unpick all the time, so now that I see you do it, I should really undo the border of a quilt I made a few years ago where the border fabric faded badly. And I've been quilting again too...and I have a tendency to clench and have had my hand spasm and cramp. This means I have to relax BEFORE hand stitching!
I can understand about the arthritis (she says as she types with her thumb brace on); the small repetitive motions really get to you..it's really holding the fabric with my left hand that hurts me. I do miss my knitting and hand sewing a lot--I guess just doing it for short periods may help...love those hand dyed silks..just lovely...
very windy here today so no outside walking...hello Trevor, the Treadmill!! Ack hugs, Julierose
I'm sorry you're having pain in your hands, but glad you can get enough relief with the pain killers to keep doing what you love!
A strong north wind blew all the water out from under our boat last night and we're basically sitting in the mud this morning. We are also sitting much further from the dock than before, so it's too big a step to get off the boat. No sense in falling in the water when I can just stay inside and sew, right? :)
I love that fabric behind that first block it's gorgeous, the Oliver Twist thread will suit the KF fabric perfectly. I hope your hands cope with the quilting, I use Voltaren gel on my sore left hand, it seems to help.
Love that first block- I could just wring out the color! I have tried doing some big stitch quilting in perle cotton, it doesn't seem as hard on my wrist.
I like comparing your older quilt with your current project. Similar colors and love of design in both. I have a bit of hand quilting to finish still. Like you, it bothers my hands to do much.
Nice that you will be able to selvage parts of your old quilt; I'm wondering what you will do with the pieces....
The combination of thread and quilt block is luscious! It's like they were made for each other. I need to take your view of unpicking as a relaxing, slow stitching task. The border of my current hand quilting project is just not satisfactory to me and I do think I need to pick it out and try something else, but I was looking up against it. Maybe I just need a perspective adjustment. I really like the quilt you are taking apart and am glad you can save some of it.
Have fun stitching on the Paintbox quilt. Glad you were able to find a way to hand stitch again. Sorry about having to salvage pieces of your older projects. The fabrics in both are beautiful.
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