I set up my quilting area for the little red and black quilt.  Good lighting, good view, area to put all my tools, out of the way of traffic.  Oh, that hat on my chair is one to walk in the woods.  I don’t want little buggies in my hair.  It was just a good place to hang it.

 

Looks like it is not going to be a very sunny day, but it’s early yet.

 

Last night I marked all my quilting lines with washable pencil and a stencil.  It should be very pretty with flowers filling up each box.  I like a lot of quilting so that it looks full and feels sturdy.  After I get it done I will wash it on the hand wash cycle and air dry it with very mild detergent.

 

 

I really love to hand quilt and love the feel of it.  I am not a perfectionist and the size of my stitches does not consume me.  I want the design to complement the quilt.  I want to make sure that the stitches show up really well on the back to make it pretty.  While I am happily stitching away I come up with quite a few ideas, not that I am solving the worlds problems by all means.  One idea was to do a search on hand quilting to see if it is still popular.  There were an infinite number of sites but I found this blog particularly interesting.  So I bookmarked it to come back to it.  It is called Celebrate Hand Quilting.

In the 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s the amount of stitches per inch seemed to be very important.  For example 13 stitches to an inch seem to be a number that was to be accomplished.  The ladies must have pulled the thread up and then put it straight back down to achieve this number.  I just do a running stitch and make three or four stitches to an inch.

 

A few pictures and links of my tools.  Lots of goodies in my Longaberger sewing basket. My needle keeper, other thimbles, some applique pieces I am working on and different threads and scissors. One is on a tweety-bird lanyard, easy to find when it has fallen down in the couch.

 

I have various thimbles that I have tried.  This is one of my favorites.  It is called a skin thimble.  It is so soft and fits around the finger quite well with a piece on the inside that shields the finger.

 

I have various scissors like all sewers and quilters.  I think that these are just beautiful.  They are lion tail scissors by gingher.

 

Next comes my bees wax.  It keeps the thread from tangling.  Here is a quilter’s message board asking about it.

 

This is the June Tailor thread holder.  I like it because it rolls easily to take some thread off.  It also has a magnet on the side, some spots to put maybe a seam ripper, a thimble and whatever you can think of.  I did a search and not sure if these are made anymore.  If not, do a search on Ebay.

 

A cup of coffee in one of my favorite cups.

 

 

This is the make of my quilting stand.  I love this chunk of wood.  It is so sturdy and I have had it for quite a while..maybe 20 years at least.  The name of the company is Hinterberg and I picked it up at an American Quilt show in Grand Rapids Michigan.  The little tool attaches with velcro to the stand.  It helps loosen or tighten the wing nuts if need be.  It is made of hardwood ash.

 

 

My reading glasses or close work glasses.  My husband gets a kick that I have three different pairs of glasses.  Close work, computer and then church or shopping glasses.

 

My view

 

Someone has found me.  Looking in to see what is going on.

 

Here comes the sun peeking up.

 

Remember to snip your threads as you go along.  It’s a pain to have to go back and try to find them.  Do it because you like it, if not you can always have someone machine quilt your design.

Thanks for stopping!