color, color everywhere
Hooray! I've finally finished hand-quilting my mother's quilt (the back story is here). It didn't take 100 years, only 100 hours or so. I started last August and last week I finished the last square. I am so elated! After the final stitch, I jumped up and did a victory dance. Of course, my fingers may never be the same, permanently calloused it seems.
I'm not using this quilt on the bed,
but how else can you take a quilt pic?
I love the look of hand-quilting and I get giddy just admiring my work, as amateur as it is. It's partially the look, but the stitches are also a physical representation of the time and hard work that went into it.
the lovely bumps creating by hand quilting
1 of 24 log cabin squares, shadow quilted
a little wobbly, but at least at semi-regular intervals
I've got two quilt tops waiting in the wings, but I don't know if I can do it again. My friend is having her queen size quilt handquilted in only a month by some lady in Utah for $80, apparently the going rate. As disturbed as I am about the sweatshop level hourly rate this lady is charging, I am tempted. Perhaps she's a speed quilter (but even at 5x my speed, she's still sorely underpaid). Perhaps she pays undocumented workers half her rate to do the job. Perhaps little elves come in at night and do all the work while she sleeps. Perhaps I should just quilt my quilts and let the mystery be.
On a final, slightly melancholy note... per the cliche, working on my mother's quilt has made me feel connected, connected to her, connected to the quilting community, connected to a quilting tradition. The only thing that makes me sad is that I don't yet have anyone to which I can pass on my quilting (or any of my other domestic skills). I'm saying this with shameless gender bias, assuming that neither of my boys will be interested or at least too busy playing sports or climbing mountains. Even if I had a girl, there's no guarantee she'd be interested either. Perhaps quilting makes its own connection, in its own time. I'll hope for that.
4 comments:
Wow. Extremely impressive. So I guess the quilting can't be done with a sewing machine? See how little I know. I was wondering, why won't you use your beautiful quilt on your bed? Are you concerned it might get damaged?
Thanks. I'm not using it on the bed because a) it's too small and b) I have cats who love to sleep on the bed and I don't want them to destroy it. I think the quilt will live a happy life on my couch, cuddling us as we watch movies.
As far as quilting by machine - it's definitely an option but gives a totally different look. Unlike machine quilting, hand quilting leaves a little space between each stitch, giving a slightly bumpy, ole-tyme look to the quilt. I prefer this look, but it is hard won. I haven't tried machine quilting yet on a large scale; it might be, for me, harder than hand quilting, trying to navigate the enormous quilt through my tiny machine. So much to learn.
That looks so beautiful. I just want to run my fingers over it and feel that quilty feel. And once again, the pattern is amazing when you see it all laid out like that. Congrats!
Gorgeous! I too am a frequent visitor to your blog and now first time commenter...so glad to know another quilting lover. You inspire me with your hand quilting. I have yet to get so ambitious.
Hope all is well (little max is adorable!) and now that I've made my first comment I'll just keep them coming.
Good suggestion on a Photography 101 blog entry. I'll put together a couple basic tips and try to post them regularly.
Post a Comment