Monday, May 18, 2015

How to eat an elephant

P1010950

This quilt has been like an elephant in the room for quite some time, and it is the reason I signed it up for my guild's Ufo challenge, finished by first Wednesday in September.

Many many  moons ago, I swapped Jane Stickle blocks with a dear friend - we each made 2 every month, keeping one, sending one off across the ocean.

As much as I loved the blocks, it took some time to find a good fabric for the spacer blocks, and next to find a good border fabric.
The autumn palette is not the closest to my heart, but I like the way it turned out.

Fearless, I started marking the fans for hand quilting, and started doing the with a fabulous mauve hand quilting thread.
Well - my shoulders did not like the hand quilting process much, and the quilt was abandoned after just a few fans done, only to be moved around in my sewing room again and again and again.

P1010946

Remember, I am practising patience - so I decided a daily nibble of the elephant will eventually do the trick.
When I pulled the quilt out, I really had to do a thorough search to find my hand quilting thread, which was put in a very clever place - not - in a box in the back of a closet - and not together with my other hand quilting thread. I wonder what made me put it there........

The mauve thread colour has been discontinued so it was a question of do or die.
It was not a good option to pull the already done hand quilting out..........even if it was only about 1/5 of the quilt then.

P1010947

2015-05-15 07.31.08

The tools are out, the marking is progressing - I am marking only one small section at a time, as the chalk is coming out with to much marking all at once.

The thimble is great - thimbles2fit - and the rhythm of hand quilting is coming back.
I have found that my sewing table in the Quilt Corner and the kitchen table has just the right height to support my work nicely.

Hopefully finished in a couple of weeks ??

small-steps-every-day

- Wishing you a good Monday -

Hanne

13 comments:

  1. the quilt is coming along nicely, Hanne. keep up the good work!

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  2. I'm glad that you are going to finish it. A little at a time adds up.

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  3. I learned how to eat and elephant from you....

    Right now I am quilting my GFG...

    I am trying to do as Tildy said and put in at least one thread a day....

    Great ideas came to me from the other side of the pond......

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  4. Så vacker quilt du håller på med.
    Mia

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  5. What a lovely quilt Hanne and the hand stitching that you have done looks fabulous! Hope you get it finished soon! :) x

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  6. beautiful, hand quilting is so soothing.

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  7. I love it - and your method to conquer, too. What is the thread color number, I may be able to help you out.

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  8. You are so wonderful picking up that quilt again. What quilting thread and number was it? It might still be available over here. Such a nuisance when you have already done a lot. Just like my hexie border fabric that I ran out of and had to unpick and resew. That quilt is well worth your effort. It is looking lovely.

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  9. Great story - you'll get there - it is going to be a lovely quilt :-)

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  10. That's how I approach all my hand sewing projects......one little bit at a time. The fan design looks great.

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  11. Quilten er nydelig, og quiltinga også. Går alltid framover om ein berre tek små steg. Det er når ein står i ro det blir halvferdig😄

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  12. Det blir kjempefint! Og du kommer nok i mål :-)

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  13. Just beautiful... it was you who told me to work on something for just a few minutes a day, to get things done. I don't always do that, but I haven't forgotten your advice.

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