And the quilting goes on...

I fully intended to be more present here over the long weekend, but I was just too busy working on projects!  A few weeks ago, I blogged about the beginning of a new quilt here.  I've been working on it off and on for the past few weeks, and it's come quite a long way.

I'm excited to have the piecing almost finished - just one more row across the bottom, which I may try to start this evening.  Right now, I think that I'll hand quilt using both red and white perle cotton thread - my idea is to quilt different size circles inside the squares.

I wish I could claim that I've been fussy-cutting all of the different pieces, but I haven't.  Taking that into consideration, this is probably my favorite part of the quilt so far:

Cute, isn't it?

I predict that I'll end up taking much longer than I would like to finish it, but I'm excited anyway.

Inch by Inch, Row by Row

I started piecing this quilt months ago.  The design is the Hootenanny quilt by Boo Davis from her book, Dare to be Square.  It's going to be lovely when finished - I made it larger by adding a border of printed fabric (so it will fit a grown-up bed).

I had planned to finish it by machine quilting, as I have in the past, but I decided to try hand-quilting.  I was inspired by Mary, one of the lovely employees of Sew to Speak - her blog, Molly Flanders, shows some of her beautifully hand-quilted creations.  I'm teaching myself to hand-quilt using a Molly Flanders tutorial and an Anna Maria Horner tutorial.  Both ladies do a great job of explaining the hand-quilting technique.

So now I have several square feet of quilt to practice with.  Slowly (very slowly), I'm getting used to the process involved in stitching rows using Perle cotton.  It's liberating to sit on the floor to quilt, rather than having to sit in front of the sewing machine.  It's still a big process, but it feels less complex.  This, I think, is peaceful and calming - the way quilting should be.

I'm pleased with the results thus far.  I think hand-quilting gives a project a more unique, handmade feel.  It's not quite perfect, but that's what makes it special. As Mary said - "You can buy perfect at Macy's."  And who wants that?

There will be pictures of my beautifully imperfect quilt when it is finished.