Well I’ve finally started quilting the sashings so it does feel like I’ve made some real progress this week, even though it was only a couple of evenings…

Three weeks ago I had sussed out how to quilt the house blocks, I made the windows bigger and also whip-stitched the quilting line. The main pieces of the houses are stitched in the ditch so although the quilting lines are hidden in the seam you still get the effect of quilting.

I’ve been prevaricating since I started the quilting how to do the sashings, they’re quite wide as there’s the 2″ borders round each block and then the 2″ squares in between. I liked the idea of hearts as I think it nicely links in with the Staying Home name of the quilt, ‘Home is where the Heart’ is and all that.

I folded a sheet of A4 paper in half three times to get a 1/8th segment and cut half a heart out free hand, leaving me with a circle of four hearts. I could then check it size-wise against the quilt and trim it accordingly. I’ve used a Frixion pen to trace round the hearts but just with dots or dashes, I’m still wary of pens on fabric even if they are meant to disappear!

I quilted two sets of hearts and then decided to add another two hearts to fill the gap in between. I’m still not sure if I have the spacing right for these two but I think it will stay pretty much as it is.

So I think I’ve quilted three houses, two embroidered blocks and one strip of hearts…so quite a bit to do still but as it’s a 25 block quilt it’s not an overwhelming amount!!In fact looking at the photo below of the quilt before I sandwiched it it’s quite encouraging, almost a line quilted!! Maybe I should aim for that next time I post, at least a full line quilted!

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and  Cathie

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the links to see what everyone has been stitching.