old quilter, new trick

 

i'm trying to get one thread-length a day stitched into "wiltshire rows." a few days ago, as i was nearing the outer edges of the quilt, i thought about how when machine quilting i occasionally catch the excess quilt back in the stitching, sewing it to the back of the quilt, but that it never happens when i handquilt.

sure enough, as i was working on the farthest row to the edge, i did just that! well, i thought, that's a first. i'm 13 years a quilter and i just managed to make a new mistake. how fun is that?

 

there's nothing i hate unpicking more than handquilting. fortunately for me, this happened on my second set of stitches for the row, so i didn't lose much. i hadnt' even pulled the needle through when i noticed what i'd done. all i had to do was fish out the knot at the end, snip it, pull through, retie, and get stitching again. now i'm right back at it.

progress on the handquitling - one third complete. 

there are 15 rows of chambray i will be quilting on both sides, and one thread length currently reaches approximately halfway across the width of the row. so that means i have 60 thread lengths to complete the quilting. so far, i've done 21 of those, putting me at just over one third done.

getting there one stitch, one thread at a time.

something else curious i've been musing on as i stitch is the way i still don't have my preferred stitch style figured out. i don't have a consistent stitch length or distance between the stitches. even when i'm using the same needle every time, these factors vary. i am definitely leaning toward small stitches, but it's the distance between that varies the most. and i honestly can't even tell which i like best. there is appeal in both larger and smaller distances between.

the above photo is pretty consistent on both sides of the small block.

this is a good example of not being the same or consistent.

i wonder if this will work out over time, or if it will always vary? this is my 12th handquilted piece, so it's not like i'm completely new to it. i definitely have learned to make smaller stitches than when i started. but they are still noticeably inconsistent, even across one quilt. it's a mystery to me!

goodness, these two close-ups are not showing my seam-matching skills at their best. that's okay. all of it is a-ok because i make quilts that are good enough, often pretty darn nice, and get loved a lot. living with all the imperfections and embracing them.

now, back to the needle and thread because i have some downtime!