Quilting From the Back

Greetings, fellow quilters! Today I was going through my (rather substantial) pile of basted quilts and wallhangings. I was looking for a small project that I could mark and carry with me to family gatherings. At almost the top of the pile was this piece:


It's about 12 inches square, was hand pieced and hand appliqued, and seemed ideal. When I looked at the top, I realized that I would have to use at least two different markers to transfer the design from the stencil to the quilt. That is always tedious at best. Having basted this many years ago, I looked to see what I had used on the back and I was in luck. The backing is a navy ground with American flags--perfect to mark my design with just one marker.

The design I chose is an overall meander that forms stars--perfect for this patriotic piece. I used the Clover White Marking Pen (fine) to mark the design. This pen irons away, leaving no residue or reappearing marks. I've been using it for a number of years and have found no change in my fabrics.

When I baste, the final row in each quadrant is within the 1/4 inch seam allowance. So I could easily mark the design within those parameters.



Next was thread selection. While red/white/blue sounds perfect, I had used that variegated thread on another piece and found that the white portion was too bright. Being a hand quilter, I have options--like removing the sections of thread that are the wrong color for this project! This YLI 40 wt variegated thread was perfect in the blues and reds--but again, the white was too bright. Luckily, the sections of white are few and far between. I roll off my length of thread, cutting away the white, and quilt happily with the blue and red sections. Presto! Customized quilting thread! Try it! It's very freeing. (For those of you who machine quilt--what can I say--not such a happy fix--perhaps I can interest you in a hand quilting class? LOL)


And here is the result. I have almost one entire section done and am very pleased with the results.

Since I made and basted this 5-pointed star, I have learned the value of grading seams--something I didn't do on this one, and the bulkiness of the intersections makes some of the quilting a bit hard to do.

Guess I'll go quilt a bit more before bed. I hope your holiday celebrations have been excellent and that the countdown to 2010 will find you in good spirits. More tomorrow.

Hugs,
Sharon

P.S. I have been keeping an eye to my blog roll and I've noticed that I tend to post when others are not--strange coincidence or planned mischief? Ha Ha--I'll never tell (although Lynnie and Callie say they can both be bribed!).