ScrapHappy May 2024 — A Vintage Top is Finally Quilted
It has been seven years since I bought this scrappy vintage top, and I finally got it hand-quilted.
Snowball Flower quilt, vintage top, hand-quilted by me!
I estimate it took me at least 60 hours, and I did very minimal quilting, just around the inner circle, the flower shape, and then a big X through the block. I quilted around the borders of alternate blocks too.
One block.
The original maker machine-pieced the center circles, and she also machine-sewed the blocks together, but she hand-pieced all the curves of the flower rings. I had a very hard time following those curves with my stitching; the next time I do this, I will stick to a pattern with straight lines!
I also had a hard time choosing a thread that I liked; everything I tried was too fine. But last year I bought a sewing table in an auction, and its drawers were stuffed with notions and threads. I found this sample in the drawer and it was perfect — heavy enough to show up, in fun bright colors that complemented the top. Fortunately it was marked well, and I was able to find it online: Lizbeth tatting thread, size 20. It is an Egyptian cotton 6-cord cordonnet, and to me it has a lovely form and body for quilting.
Lizbeth thread in Fruit Fizz, from Handy Hands, Inc.
It is sold by Handy Hands, Inc. and once I saw all their color combinations, I ordered quite a few. And to my delight, when they shipped it, they put in two more samples! (No, I am not sponsored in any way.)
Because size 20 is a pretty thick thread, I had to use a bigger needle than is usually recommended for hand-quilting, and I did not achieve very consistent stitches. But I enjoyed working on this quilt and seeing the various colors of thread interact with the different fabrics. Maybe someday I will go back and do another round of quilting on it, but it is quilted enough to hold together, and I am glad I finally finished it! Somewhere a mid-century quilter is resting a little easier, knowing that one of her projects got finished. 🙂
These fun fabrics were quilted with a thinner cotton thread.
ScrapHappy Day, the 15th of each month, was originated by Kate and Gun, the first two names in the list below. We are always celebrating the use of scraps, even if we don’t post every single month. You can visit the others to see what scrap-happiness they have come up with this month!
Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy,
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa,
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah
Another Charming and cheerful quilt, rescued! Hooray!
You did a lovely job with the quilting! How wonderful to have it completed.
Oh, wonderful! Thank you for finally waking up this sleeping beauty, and with such lovely quilting thread, too. (You remind me that I’ll need new needles for quilting my Marquise quilt, as I don’t usually use No. 8 cotton 😊🪡)
This is a really beautiful quilt and it’s wonderful that you’ve quilted it. Your hand quilting is perfect 🙂
Thank you but ha! I have seen your hand quilting and that is what I aspire to!
I was wondering if you have done a post about how you do your quilting — hoop? rocking stitch? etc. I searched your blog but did not find one. I would appreciate any tips you can give me! 🙂
Thank you for your lovely compliment. I just looked up rocking stitch and that is the effect I hope for! I just do running stitch/hand basting stitch and load as many stitches onto the needle as possible. I don’t use a thimble. I usually use two strands of embroidery thread just because I have a lot of it from a past life in cross stitch and I choose the sharpest all purpose needle I can find with a big enough eye the thread it. I did try some quilting needles once but I found them too small and fiddly and struggled to load more than a couple of stitches. My big tip is to draw with a frixion erasable pen and sew along the line, then iron but I don’t know if I’d want to risk that on a vintage quilt 🙂
What a wonderful quilt! Congratulations on the finish 🙂
Love the quilt and you have done a great job quilting it.
I’m always amazed at the things you find at auctions! Another wonderful rescue 😀
Great quilt! I know you are happy to have it out of your “to do” pile.