Quilts in the Rafters

Yesterday the farmer and I switched the quilts in the rafters. He did the height work while I stood safely on the floor and told him what to do.

Welsh Beauty is in the dining area. The design of the quilt was hand quilted with blue Sulky #12 weight thread. It didn't show very well on the side toward the south window but I noticed it showed better on the north side. That's the side in this picture.

Welsh Beauty isn't a very showy quilt but it took me so long to hand quilt this quilt, I had to put it on display!

The west side rafter in the living room has blue churn dash. This quilt was also hand quilted and is a reproduction of a quilt made by the farmer's great grandmother.

The east side rafter is displaying Midnight Blues, the last finish of 2023.

In this picture you can see Lady Jane in the background of the dining room.

Here are a few more pictures.

I didn't get those quilts off the back of the couch. They're put away now.

I'm hoping to piece a blue & white wallhanging for the east wall this year. Yes, it's green outside, we didn't have a white Christmas but some of my Christmas cactus are blooming.

I can never make pictures go next to each other, oh well.

I told you I would show you pictures of the ladder we use to hang the quilts. Here they are. And yes, that is a duster he's holding. I figure as long as he's up there, he might as well dust those rafters!

Yes, those rafters are up there. This ladder was left by the former owner so I could wash those high windows! I don't think so.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell,  Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

I have one more picture to show you. Peppermint Pines is now hanging on the hanger into the guest room. It's not the Christmas season but I'm displaying it anyway!

2022 Challenges, 6 - 10

 I made a list last December of challenges for the year 2022. Now at the end of 2022, I'm reviewing how many of those challenges I've met. I'll be posting about those challenges all week. As I said in my last post, moving into a new house slowed down the quilting progress.

This post is about challenges 6 - 10. Click on the title of each number to follow a link to a post.

6. School auction flimsy - I decided to combine #2 with #6 and pieced a Blue Ridge Beauty. She is in the process of being hand quilted for the 2023 school auction.

7. Finish ongoing RSC projects -

    Star Dance - All the shoofly blocks have been pieced but no progress since. Hopefully a 2023 finish.

    Scrappy Sprouts - All of the blocks are pieced but no progress since, maybe in 2023?

    Dancing Stars - Again nothing, still in the bag, maybe in 2023?

I've decided I can't start anymore RSC projects until these 3 are finished.

8. Welsh Beauty - hand quilting - The challenge I had issued last December was to be halfway finished with the hand quilting by May. I actually reached the halfway point in March but I finished the hand quilting in October! 

9. Hearts & Wreaths Applique quilt - All of the blocks for the center have been appliqued. Now I need to prep the borders. The borders will take at least a year to applique.

10. UFQ's (unfinished quilts) - Finish at least 1 of them.

Several UFQ's were finished.

A. Another String X flimsy. I did think about keeping this quilt for our own use but then decided to donate it to be knotted for a comforter.

B. Indian Hatchet - I love this quilt. This one is staying here for our own use.

C.  Arrowhead Blocks - This is a small quilt that I've machine quilted. He has gone to a nursing home for use as a lap quilt.

I think I've completed other UFQ's but these were the main ones I thought of.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, 

Welsh Beauty, A Sunday Finish!

Welsh Beauty is completed FINISHED!!!!!!! Completely finished, labeled and bound!!!!!!

The hand quilting process started in August 2021, the first post was in September.

After the binding was finished, Welsh Beauty was rinsed (not washed because I didn't add any detergent) and rinsed on the delicate cycle of my washing machine with cold water. She really shrank! I didn't measure before washing but the package said the quilt was 90" by 108". After washing she now measures 83" by 101" using cold water!

The blue quilting thread doesn't show up very well in the pictures. I took the quilt back to the farmhouse to use the quilt line on the porch.

The cross hatched squares measured 1" before washing, after washing they measured 3/4".

Here is a picture of the side swags.

A close up of the quilting from one of the corners.

The backing fabric was a brown figured whole cloth fabric. I didn't want muslin on the back, it's already on the front! I had originally planned to use a variegated brown thread but changed my mind and used variegated blue thread instead.

A hand quilted quilt needs a hand embroidered label. I took this picture in a different room, the blue thread shows better. 

A total of 902 yards of thread were used in quilting. 

People always ask what I'm going to do with a quilt. I'm keeping this one for sure, eventually it will end up with one of my grandchildren but hopefully that's many years away. 

Welsh Beauty will be displayed/used on the guest room bed while our daughter is here for a short visit. Then she (the quilt) will go along to retreat with me, she's my show & tell! I'll also put her on my bed in the motel room. Why have an ordinary boring motel cover when I can have a nice quilt? When I return home, she'll go back on the company bed. 

Here is a link to my first post about Welsh Beauty. 

Several people have asked me what top is next in the quilting frame, I don't know for sure, perhaps Lady Jane? However I'm extremely burnt out on hand quilting, the next quilt won't start before December, maybe even later.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Monday Musings, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Welsh Beauty

Another row of Welsh Beauty has been quilted! I'm so close to a finish!!!

Here is this section of quilting, from the right side of the quilt to the left side.

I didn't take pictures of all of the swags but there are 5 of these swags in the center of the quilt.

This picture is taken from the opposite side of the quilt. You can see where the quilt top is pinned to the ticking. You can also see part of the wool batting under the ticking.

You can see the top of the quilt that needs to be quilted, I can reach all of it so the next time I post about Welsh Beauty, the hand quilting will be finished!

It's those pins that make the weird bumpy marks after I roll but they always disappear. 

The quilting frame hasn't made it to the new house yet. Despite Kathi's assurances that you can remove a partially quilted quilt then put it back in the frame just fine, I decided to leave the quilt in the frame at the farm house. I don't quilt every afternoon but often enough to make progress.

Besides, the quilting frame is going to be set up in my sewing space in the basement of the new place. We'll have to put the rods through the egress window to get it down there!

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Welsh Beauty

Before I left for Utah, I rolled Welsh Beauty, I can actually see the ticking I pinned the flimsy to at the very top of the quilt!

Here are pictures of my quilting from right to left.

There are several sections of cross hatching with the bottoms of the flowers quilted. I'm only showing you one section.

In the next picture, I'm standing at the top of the quilt, opposite of the side I quilt on. Ticking is attached to the rod and I pin the quilt flimsy to the ticking. As I roll more, the ticking will lengthen. I'll show you more next time I post about Welsh Beauty.

This is so exciting, just 9" more to quilt! I'm not sure if this will be 2 or 3 swaths across, it just depends on the mood I'm in. I have a tendency to try to teach in too far but then my stitches aren't as small as I like them.

Here is a link to my first post about Welsh Beauty and here is a link to a picture of an unquilted Welsh Beauty on the Stencil Company page. This will give you an idea of the area left to quilt compared with the rest of the quilt.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Welsh Beauty

 Another row of hand quilting across Welsh Beauty is done. For this post, I took pictures of all the cross hatching. Here are the pictures from the right edge to the left edge.

This happened as I was quilting, I used all the variegated blue thread on this spool, all 300 yards! Adding those 300 yards to the previous used 400 yards of YLI thread is 700 yards. I've added 100 more yards of YLI thread so the total yards of thread used to date is 800. This quilt just might be the quilt that breaks the 1000 yard mark! 

The quilt that I've hand quilted with the most yards of thread so far is the Pastor's Attic quilt which finished with 885 yards of thread.

One more row across the quilt and I'll start quilting the swags on the top of the quilt!

I was asked last week if I always keep track of the number of yards of thread I use. When I quilted for pay, I always kept track of my thread yardage because I charged by the number of yards of thread. 

Some quilters charge by the number of hours they put into the quilt but all quilters quilt at a different speed. All the hand quilters in my area who quilt for hire are paid by the yardage.

I don't always keep track of the number of yards of thread in a quilt but I do if I know there is going to be a high number of yards. I'm just curious that way.

Last Sunday I had several requests from commenters that they would like to see my hand quilting frame. My frame is a Grace hand quilting frame with 4 rods. I posted about the frame in my November 7, 2021 post. Each rod has a cloth leader which I pin each element of the quilt sandwich. I had been quilting for several months when I took the pictures for the November 7 post so I was unable to show you the cloth leaders. I'll try to remember to do that when I'm at the top of the quilt.

I'm taking another blogging break until sometime in October when I'll share with you what all has been happening this summer.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Welsh Beauty

Another row of hand quilting across Welsh Beauty has been accomplished.

Here is my quilting from the right side toward the left side.

The corner motif reaches into the quilt. It's nice to quilt something besides crosshatching.

There is 3 - 4 sections of crosshatching until we reach the left side motif.

This is part of the corner motif.

Left edge.

As you can see, I have a puckering problem on the left side. Hopefully I've got it pinned well enough the puckers will quilt out. I don't know why this is happening but I'll be done soon so it shouldn't be too big of a problem.

This is what I'll be quilting next on the right side, a lot of the corner motif.

If you look at the top of this crosshatching, you'll see flowers that belong to the border. There are at least 2 passes of quilting before I reach those flowers. Those weird marks on the quilt are impressions from the pin heads. By the time that section is rolled down and ready to be quilted, they will have disappeared.

In my last post about Welsh Beauty, I told you I'm cutting 10 yards of thread in 1 yard pieces to keep track of how many yards of thread I'm using. This is my high tech method.

I just use this old yardstick to measure. I hold the end of the thread with my right hand then most the spool of thread to the left. When I'm at the left edge of the yardstick, I cut the thread and do it again, counting as I measure.

I then place the yardstick on top of the thread to keep it in place and keep the thread straight. It doesn't tangle doing it this way. The striped fabric is the cloth I keep on the quilt when I'm not quilting. The stick lays on the back of the quilt, I don't take the whole cloth off when I quilt.

That yardstick brings back a lot of memories! They closed so many years ago and it's been at least 20 years since 219 was our area code.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday