After achieving the monumental task of making a backing and basting, my RAY quilt sat for a day or two but luckily I was able to reach my goal of beginning the hand-quilting before Christmas arrived. And it's going ok! The hardest (ie. part I like least) is the marking. Due to the range of fabric colors in the quilt, I'm actually using three marking tools:
- Bohin Extra-Fine Chalk Pencil with blue lead
- Clover Pen Style Chaco Liner in yellow
- Sewline Fabric Mechanical Pencil Trio - specifically the white lead
For the actual stitching, I'm using a Tulip Long Sashiko needle and perle cotton #8 in royal blue. I'm also not using a hoop, which I believe is my first time doing that on this large of a quilt. It's interesting! But doing big-stitch quilting using that large needle allows me to load quite a few stitches on the needle at a time. And I would have thought I'd have had to be really cautious with the tension of my stitches, but they seem to settling in just fine, albeit not totally straight and even.
Beautiful stitching/quilting, great project you have going.
ReplyDeleteI haven't started my version yet, I'm going slow as other responsibilities have to be attended to!
Merry Christmas!
your stitches look beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever used a Hera marker? I find it invaluable in marking my quilts for hand quilting. A quarter inch masking tape is also another method I like, but I am not sure how readily available it is now. It can be removed and replaced a number of times before it loses its 'stickiness'. Your stitches look great!
ReplyDeleteWow, handquilting it and you want to be finished by tonight?! Good luck - you might need it ;) xo Melanie
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing how you went about quilting this. What did you think of the yellow Chaco-liner? I've heard nothing but bad things about it, being that the yellow never comes out, even with washing. I appreciate knowing which needle you used for this. That's a new-to-me suggestion, so thank you! As always, you have great quiltmaking wisdom.
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