Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Quilting has Started


Today is June 3rd, and I am trying to quilt on the Amazing Flower Quilt every evening for a little while. My fingers were really sore the first night, as I haven't done any handquilting since last August. With a little Bag Balm on them at night, they are getting toughened up pretty well. I buy this at Walmart in a little green can over in the "stuff for animals." Read on the can and get a good laugh. How anyone ever thought of using this for quilters' fingers, is beyond me!

As you can see in the picture, I am doing "shadow quilting" on the Dogwood, and I am trying to get one flower block done by next Monday, which is a week from when I started. I know I can't keep this up, as some of the flower blocks have much more space to be quilted than this Dogwood.

I am using 1/8" tape around the outside edges of the block up next to the sashing, as this gives the shadow quilting a place to stop. I found this tape at some quilt shop ages ago, and hope it is still available for anyone who likes to use it.

I am drawing the quilting lines with washable blue thin-line pens and washing the blue away with distilled water using a q-tip. After so much of the blue fluid gets in the water, it has to be replaced as you can see a slight hint of it still on the quilted area from last night. I shall just reapply the distilled water tonight before I go to bed and let the block dry overnight.

I am using a size 12 quilting needle which is very very tiny, but the smaller the needle, the smaller the stitches.

Don't cut thread too long...........I cut it no longer than 12" at most.

It doesn't get tangled as easily as a long long thread does.

Tonight I am watching (no, listening to a movie with Mr. Whoozy) while quilting. Great fun!