It’s in the air. Due to politics? Nope, not on your life! It’s because February, the month of Valentines, has arrived. What a relief to have a little love and maybe a little romance. How “lovely” is it to sit and sew in the winter and use up a bunch of scraps? To me, it feels like cleaning cobwebs…if I ever cleaned, that is. I’d so much rather play with fabric than dust.
The Log Cabin block has been around forever, but I’ve found it’s ten times easier to paper-piece when it’s small, like these cute little 3″ blocks. It keeps the lines of your seams honest! “Love in a Little Log Cabin” has templates to print as well as the usual full directions and tons of colored diagrams to follow. On sale for $3.50 until Valentine’s Day, CLICK HERE for more information.
Aren’t these colors just yummy? I actually hand-quilted mine and won 2nd Place in the Alabama National Fair.
When I say I hand-quilted, I should have written HAND. It was a red letter day–well, probably more like a month–and it’s just a 24″-square! Whew! I know people enjoy it, but I thought I’d never get finished.
I’m really not the person to give tips on hand-quilting, but I’ll attempt a few.
- Use a tiny quilting needle. They have sizes 10-12 for quilting so thin that they pass through the layers easily. Just be aware that they are hard to thread, so have a threader handy.
- Use a thimble. Do as I say, not as I do. I just never got the hang of it. But be advised that you may tear up your fingers with pricking if you don’t. I have long nails, which makes it hard, but that’s no excuse because these days, there are special leather thimbles open at the top for the nail. Try some different styles. There’s one style that has elastic over the knuckle to keep the thimble from falling off. I’ve also seen little stick-on pads to protect the fingers.
- I’ve heard that you shouldn’t thread more than 18″ at a time because when it’s too long, thread gets tangled. Do as I say, not as I do. “They” also say you can run your thread through beeswax to….lubricate? keep it from tangling? strengthen it? I’m not sure I ever knew exactly why, but some quilters swear by it, so I suppose I should mention it.
- You can get different size hoops for lap projects. Check them out.
- Ideally, load 8-12 stitches per inch on your needle. Right. Well, do as I….you get it. I did try, but it takes practice. It’s better to be even in the stitches than tiny; of course, tiny AND even is the goal. I have heard of some “big stitch quilting,” which is sounding pretty good to me. I believe it’s done on informal projects with thick thread…like you’re a pioneer woman who only has string to work with?
- Bend some rules–now that’s really me talking. Just for fun, I quilted some of this heart with metallic embroidery thread. It doesn’t slip in and out of the fabric too well, but it adds a pretty sparkle. I also added a few glass beads here and there to add more sparkle. They are very tiny, but they’re there!
7. Final word–don’t kill yourself…the quilting originally HAD to be done because the cotton batting fell apart. However, newer battings don’t have to have so much quilting–do as much as you like. Me? I’ll head back to the quilting machine for the most part and just tackle hand-quilting once in a great while.
Lovely!