Wednesday, February 10, 2016

In the Hoop

So I got the king-size behemeth spread out on the floor and pin-basted yesterday morning. It actually went better than I had expected...notwithstanding the sore knees and shoulders today!  Only took about two hours to pin after all the layers were smoothed out.
All pinned

The nasty looking ripples in the pink border looked a lot less forbidding after being pinned into some form of submission, and I expect think hope will quilt out nicely.  This vintage top came from the same Ohio Mennonite estate sale as the Blockade quilt completed in December.
The backing fabric came from the bargain basement of a local quilt shop in Oregon a few years back, luckily just enough to back the entire quilt.

The top came to me with all the sashings and borders already lightly pencil marked for quilting.  The appliqued/embroidered blocks are also marked in blue ink, part of the original block pattern.  I suspect they may have been meant to be embroidered.  After all these years I'm not sure those blue markings will come out completely so I decided to use big stitch quilting and try to cover as much of the blue as possible with the green Presencia No. 8 pearl cotton. This is what it looked like after a little while quilting last evening.

No expectations about finishing this one very soon, in fact it will probably come out of the hoop several times as higher priority projects are ready ... or as I get bored with this one. Except for the green pearl cotton big stitch quilting in the blocks the remainder will be done with regular old-fashioned white thread quilting to outline the appliques and in the sashings and borders.  But it is nice to have a project back in the floor hoop again.

11 comments:

Needled Mom said...

That is going to be gorgeous. I love the big stitch quilting with it.

Janet O. said...

What a treasure. The backing looks like a great match. The big stitch is a good idea and it looks really nice so far. : )

Dana Gaffney said...

That quilt was quite the find and it's going to be gorgeous when you finish. The big stitch looks really good and it all sounds so soothing to do, except for the kneeling and pinning :)

Debbie said...

What a pretty top to work on. Having it already marked is great and your big stitches will be so nice on it.

The Tea Lady's Journal said...

A charming quilt. I love it. I think it will look beautiful when it is all quilted.

Chantal said...

What a gorgeous quilt this is. I love the big green stitches and so even and perfect. This will be fabulous when finished. Congrats on finding it and the backing fabric too. ;^)

Ruth said...

That is a lovely quilt and the green quilting looks great! You are amazing!

audrey said...

What a nice quilt to be working on. I'm always happy to see the borders smooth out with hand quilting. It's more forgiving than machine quilting that way!

Kyle said...

That's a great idea doing the big stitch on those preprinted lines. It will be a awesome quilt when you get it done. And it's a good reminder that some projects just don't get done quickly.

Samplings from Spring Creek said...

Beautiful quilt and you tackled the job--try Aleve for sore knees and shoulder

barbara woods said...

What size are your blocks? Love your quilt