Helen's Quilt

I have brought Helen's quilt on holiday with us. I have intentions of working on it while we are away. I did the same thing in February. I didn't do any then. This time it is going to be different. I know this because I have made some decisions. I love the stitching that I was doing on the quilt by hand. But it was taking forever. I was using two strands of embroidery floss, because when I started this project (a very long time ago - we're talking about three years here folks, at least) I didn't know about perle cotton and I thought that the embroidery floss would give more impact that traditional hand stitching. It does. But it still takes forever.

To complicate things, I stitched a little two close to the seams, so when I was in an area where the seams had been pressed on that side I couldn't get the needle in and out in one motion without creating a massive stitch that was totally out of keeping with the rest of the stitches. So I had to do each stitch by pulling the needle all the way through on the bottom side of the quilt and then feed it back up again in the desired position.

This was one of the reasons it was taking me so long. It looked great but I didn't want to play that game any more.

I've measured. Each of those wee stitches measures about 1/8th of an inch. What was I thinking?! So I am going to rip them all out. I got Helen's permission first. There are 20 'X's and 'O's on this quilt. It took me about three years to get not quite four done. The odds were that this was going to be finished for a grandchild, not Helen.

I ordered some perle, did a quick round of stitches to show Helen (and myself) and also to show her how much faster it would be for me to do it this way. I am making the stitches even bigger than I did in my Wonky Stars quilt. How very brave of me. I also stitched further away from my seams. You can teach an old dog new tricks!

It might not be as graceful a quilt. But it will be finished. There is a lot to be said for that. Perle cotton is my saviour. I hope to be able to show you a lot of progress on this by the time we return from 'up north'.

Susan