The Teeny Tiny Trip

Just shy of two years ago this week, I took a Small Hand Piecing class from Chawne Kimber at QuiltCon in Pasadena. Made completely and utterly by hand, what began with 1 1/2" unfinished squares, is now a 38" square quilt.

Obviously, I took my time, and honestly my love for this project experienced a serious ebb and flow. Due to the nature of the hand-piecing, every single square required hand-drawn stitching lines, which I can't say I loved, but it worked well. Probably my absolute least favorite part of the process was the swirling and pressing on the back side. I would do that every round or maybe two. Any more than that and things got seriously depressing.

When I started, I had in mind this thing would be indefinite and huge! But when the time between rounds turned into months at a time, I decided that wasn't the best idea, and that finished was better than size. I made quick work of the quilt back, piecing some coordinating lengths from stash.

As far as quilting, doing it by hand was the obvious tack. And considering I had plenty of that in my quilting history, it actually felt very good to be doing it again. Can't say I ever got really proficient at it, but I was comfortable with doing it at least. That in itself felt pretty good, though it still took me a few months, even on this small size. For thread, I used what I had on hand - Aurifil 40wt #2024 [White] - and paired with some Sew Fine thread gloss, it worked wonderfully.

SO when I finally was ready to bind, I machine-pieced a length of binding strips without even thinking, just out of habit. Then it dawned on me that there wasn't a machine-stitch in this thing, and questioned why I should start as I was finishing it. The main reason was I had never done that before! Was it even a thing? I couldn't help mention my dilemma to Chawne, and she eventually confessed that yes, she does bindings completely by hand all the time. I considered for a bit, and came up with a few reasons why I decided to do the same, including removing the machine stitches I'd already put in the binding seams:

• Even hubby(!) said, "Well, you've done the rest of it by hand."
• The texture of the little quilt was amazing due to the handwork, and I didn't want to risk jeopardizing that.
• After nearly two years of fits and starts, now I wasn't in a rush for it to be done!

Gotta say, it worked ok and I'm super happy that this one was created by hand, right down to the last stitch. Considering how much I tend to rush through projects, it's nice to know I can occasionally just slow down. The texture, you guys, is indeed a delight. Yeah, I wish it was at least a little larger but oh well. Thinking another hand project might be in order.

This project was on my 2020 Finish-A-Long Q1 List!
Linking up with TGIFF!