IF YOU WERE TO?????
I was chatting with my DD, Kris on the phone today and she was asking how far along I was on my Prairie Sweets project - you might recall that I'm hand appliquing the rings. Anyway, she wondered if I was doing the entire thing by hand - no just the hand applique. She asked if I'd ever considered doing an entire quilt by hand - well yes, but hadn't ever settled on a pattern, etc. After we were finished chatting I spent the rest of the day contemplating a long term handpieced project.
I could use a little advice!
If you were to hand piece a quilt - which pattern would you use and why?
I'll be waiting anxiously for your comments! Thanks for stopping by - it's such a pleasure when you do.
Did you laugh today? :-)
In Friendship
28 comments:
I probably wouldn't hand piece a whole quilt (my attention span is way too short). But if I were going to do something hand pieced, it would probably be for something that was difficult/complicated to machine piece either with lots of set ins or y-seams or with lots of curves.
I guess an English Paper Pieced Grandmother's Flower garden would be the one I'd do.
But only if I had a full time staff to attend to my family's needs for the years that I'd have to spend sewing it!
I would love to do a grandmothers flower garden quilt, an apple core quilt totally scrappy....and...
lots more.
Yes it is one of my goals in life to make a quilt totally by hand.
Not just an applique quilt that will be hand appliqued and hand pieced.
Kathie
ohhh, there are LOTS of quilts I'd hand piece! Next on my list is either a winding ways or a roayl corss. Currently I'm english paper piecing a 2" equilateral triangle quilt - yep, it will be BED size!
I have both handpieced and handquilted a lot of quilts. And I love to do it. Any pattern can be handpieced. But I love the challenge where lot of corners are meeting or bowed lines :)
I have made a GMFG entirely by hand (bed size) (from cutting the tiny paper pieces, to piecing and quilting). It took me 4 years to complete (among other projects). Up to now, this quilt is the one I enjoyed the most making . I am now working on a "cubes quilt" (see May Britt's tutorial), a beautiful "Seven Sisters" is already haunting my dreams, and I'd love making a "hexagons star", like Bonnie (Quiltville)... :>)
I don't care at all about the time it takes, I just love the feeling of quietness and relaxation, when handpiecing, and also the vintage look, when finished. Oh, and hearing some "Dragons" saying "this girl must be completely crazy" is part of the pleasure, too ! LOL
Easy and portable, these projects are labors of love and patience... HOWEVER : I wouldn't advise anyone to start such a quilt as a single project ! It must be sitting in a basket, ready for use, when you feel like it, together with some other quicker projects.
And now I just can't wait knwowing whether you're going to start one, and which pattern ? :>)
Biiiig ((HUGS)) and smiles to you !
xoxoxoxoxxoox
Nadine
Ohhh, YES! I most definitely will want to at least make one quilt entirely by hand in my lifetime. Still haven't done one, but I've started - and it is my Dear Jane :o) I've decided no machine is goung to come near it - even if I will feel like I'll be going mad with all the sashing strips *lol*
Other quilts I'd like to do by hand? Something with curves and/or set-in seams, and/or appliqué :o)
I love the peacefulness of hand stitching, but I usually don't have the patience to do a whole thing only by hand :o) ...one day...
Take care and enjoy your quilting!
The Dear Jane Quilt would be a great one to jump into the deep end with...or Linda Franz's quilted diamonds. She's got great tips for hand piecing.
I have an English paper pieced quilt on the go--in fact it has been on the go for years! This is my only attempt at hand piecing an entire quilt.
On the other side of the ocean it's a different story: I handpiece and handquilt everything! A bedsize quilt takes me on and off about a year (or 2, depending on the numbers of little projects that come in between..)I even use sandpaper templates and no rotarycutter. Really old school!Lately I've tried to piece mini quilts on the machine for practice. I'm amazed about the wonderfull quilts you all make by machine.I lack the skills and machinepiecing makes me all stressed out!
About 7 years ago, I started a Dear Jane and thought that I'd hand piece it. I only made 7 blocks. Now I have a scrappy hexagon that I'm handpiecing once in a blue moon.
I would never even start to hand piece a whole quilt, but if I did it would probably be a Dear Jane. I love the look of them when they are done but...I don't really find hand sewing very relaxing. Bindings on machine quilts are more than enough for me.
I've done a couple of projects with hand pieceing. The first one I did was a simple 9 patch that was lapsize. I did that while watching the Olympics back in the 1990's. The next one was many of the blocks in the DJ I made for my son. Most of the blocks in that were handpieced, but the blocks were sewn together by machine. I do lots of hand applique, but I also have a Cathedral Windows in progress now. I plan to do a scrappy hexagon or a Thousand Pyramids by hand...someday. I love hand work!
If this would be a persons first handpiecing project, I would "not" suggest starting with DJ. The many, very small pieces in DJ and QD could be very discouraging to someone who might be just learning handpiecing. I think something simpler with larger pieces so you can refine your skills, yet see a finished product within a reasonable amount of time would be much more satisfying. Just my personal opinion. :-)
My latest infatuation (I'll never live long enough to make all the quilts I love) is Tazzie's Royal Cross (Tazzie's blog - http://tazziequilts.blogspot.com/, Royal Cross pattern from Tazzie -
http://www.geocities.com/tsniedze/blocks.html)
My entirely-by-hand project is a GFG which I started 3 years ago. I have most of the flower blocks made and when the last few stitched I'll begin on the path that joins them. I call it my "nursing home quilt" because I joke that by the time it's completed that's where I'll be residing. (I hope I am wrong.)
If I were going to hand piece an entire quilt I would do an apple core or a hexagon quilt. I have already decided I want to do a scrappy doll sized apple core quilt in the new year.
My very first quilt was a sampler that I hand pieced all the blocks, but ended up machine stitching the sashing.
I had an email from a gal who is hand piecing the Civil War Love Letters quilt blocks. I haven't really looked at the blocks yet but something like that might be a good one. I did a hand pieced sampler class very early in my quilting days and it was a good learning process.
I haven't hand pieced a whole quilt that I remember though I have made several hand appliqued/hand quilted ones. I think for hand piecing it would be GFG. Tumbling Blocks, Apple Core or some other pattern with lots of curves or set in seams.
I do have a Cathedral Window quilt "started" - some background squares are cut. Oh, I just remembered I have a basket of 1.5" squares by my chair that I hope to hand-piece totally so I guess I will be doing one in the near future (the next 10 years or so).
I have actually finished hand piecing a king-size quilt top. It is a sampler, and it's about 1/2 hand quilted, but somehow, I lost my momentum and quit working on it about 3 years ago. I've also hand pieced a Drunkard's Path that is about king-size as well. It's almost done, and then I plan on hand quilting that too. And last as well as smallest (wall-hanging size), I'm making a GFG in tiny 3/4" pieces English paper piecing it. That one is probably about 3/4 done, and then it's going to be hand quilted and given to my sister for her adopted Chinese daughter. She already has a baby quilt that my mom and I made that has some of the same fabric s the wall-hanging in it.....I love the portability and quietness of hand-piecing and hand quilting! My current WIPs include 4 handquilting projects!!!
Angie
panda719@ncidata.com
My handpiecing project (the one that will probably still be with me when The Princess takes me to the old folks home *s*) will be my English paper piecing hexagon stars . . . I really must get back to it and commit to putting a few stitches in on a regular basis.
Well -- I am hand piecing a Dear Jane but I don't think I would chose to do that on purpose -- LOL!!
My first quilt was a sampler quilt and I hand pieced most of the blocks in that one - as that is what the instructor taught us. They were 12inch blocks. So I would hand piece another sampler - because then you could do a bunch of different things - applique, english paper piecing etc - but I would probably do 9 inch blocks instead of 12. The nice thing about hand piecing is you can just pick it up and do it in front of the TV at night - just like the little stitcheries you do. I bet you would enjoy it. Another pattern that I love is the Dresden Plate - which is beautiful in 30's fabrics!
I have too many hand stitching projects on the go to start hand piecing a quilt. I've thought about doing a grandmothers flower garden many times, I have the hexagons. Also for me it would have to be something "small", my attention span is not good.
I look forward to seeing what you decide.
Sevreal girls mentioned it, but a Grandmother's Flowergarden quilt is a dream of mind to hand piece. In the movie: Paradise, Melanie Griffith had a Flowergarden quilt that I've never forgetten....
Over the last two years,off and on, I have been hand piecing a Drunkard's Path varation. The pattern comes from the july/August'96 issue of Quiltmaker. My friend made it and it is beautiful. Good luck you have a lot of good suggestions.
I love hexagons, so that would be my choice, don't know which pattern, but one of these days...
I would go with either GFG gotta love those Hexagons ... or possibly a Cathedral Window, that one is on my someday hand piece list. It is so beautiful...and it uses such small pieces of your scrap bin so its a great use of the itty pieces you have left. It does however take a lot of muslin!
Well that is assuming muslin is your base fabric.
I think I'd do a scrappy applecore or maybe a tumbling block and it would probably NOT be a large quilt!
I hand pieced my first quilt because I'd never used or owned a sewing machine. It was a cute little quilt from the McCall's site with 4 patches and little pockets for beanie babies.
What a good quesiton! I enjoy hand piecing but never ever do it any more because I have too many quilts I want to make. I'd probably use English paper piecing to do a hexagon quilt. Not a Grandmothers Flower Garden, but a quilt from early 19th century reproduction fabrics like the antique hexagon quilts we saw in our first class with Eileen. I'd also like to do an apple core charm quilt like Kathie mentioned. I'm sure I have a plastic template around here somewhere to rotary cut that shape but I just can't find it.
Grandmother's Flower Garden
English Paper Piecing Method
Good Luck
~D Spack~
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