So here it is.  I made this for The Girl.  It was supposed to be a transition-to-big-kid-bed quilt when she turned 2.  It wasn’t finished and I think I gave it to her when she was 4.

And for all the time it took – hardly any of the quilting is visible because I did most of it in the ditch.  I will never do that again.  Also I’ll never hand quilt a flannel-backed quilt again, either!

It has been awhile since I’ve done any hand quilting.  I really miss it.  Sometime soon!

The name of this quilt was Black-eyed Susan and it was one of the last patterns I followed.  It was supposedly a “quick” pieced quilt but it took me forever to get pieced.  I can’t remember now what book the pattern was from – The Girl is 7 now so it has been probably 5 or more years since I saw that book.  I wonder what I did with it!  She sleeps with it on her bed in the winter time and Duke (the dog) has chewed some holes in it.  Sigh.

The reason I noticed that I have never posted a picture of a hand-quilted quilt is because I wanted to contribute to the Hand Quilting Celebration over at Michigan Quilts.

Run on over and check it out!

10. It makes my favorite pastime portable. I have spent many a swim lesson or dance practice piecing up a storm.

9. It gives me a glimpse into the past. I’m sure my skills are abyssmal compared to the skills of just about any woman who sewed before 1900. But still – I get a little vignette of what it was like to perform a very specific task (quilting! My favorite!) long ago.

8. Most quilters today don’t hand-piece: I’m unique!

7. It gives me the feeling that I am connected to a long line of women (and occasionally men) who suffered hardships and disappointments – but still managed to build their lives and give us the world we have today.

6. It can give you better control over the seam allowances. You are not restricted to the direction you can press them when a block is finished because they are always hanging out free-flappin’ style.

5. Yes, templates and using a scissors to cut out fabric is tedious. But did you know some shapes can be cut with a rotary cutter? You can also use precuts, too.

4. In some cases it actually is faster to piece by hand. Jenny Beyer claims she can piece just about any block faster than someone can make it on a machine. While I would not go that far I do think I can piece a curve nicer and faster than someone using a machine can.

3. My piecing is always more accurate when I do it with my hands than when I do it with a machine.

2. Creating it with my own hands instead of a machine gives me a little zing of 2-year-old-independent pride: I can look at it and think I made that all by myself.

1. It really is a zen thing. Getting my stitches going and developing a seam can be really soothing and calming. Look out, stress! Here comes my quilt!

There is a new addition to my wishlist:  a tile quilt!  See an example at Barbara Brackman’s website.  If you don’t follow Barbara’s blog and you are in to historical quilting facts…get with it and subscribe to her blog!

On to frugal quilt projects – piecing a potholder!  In episode 8 I talked about all of the pieces you would need to cut out.  I am sure you have them at the ready!  Here are the steps we will take now:

1) Take a light square and a dark square and place them right sides together.   Point a pin right at the upper left hand dot that you marked on the piece facing you.  Now push the pin through, and flip to the other side.  You are looking for the pin to exit from the upper right hand dot on the back piece.  If they don’t line up, adjust the placement of the pieces until you can get the pin to pierce both dots.  Then slide the pin into place.

Pin two pieces corner dot to corner dot

2) Now thread your needle.  Tie a small knot at the end of the thread.  Then, like with the pin, insert your needle in the upper right hand corner dot of the piece facing you, and get the end of the needle to puncture the dot on the back piece.  Then you will rock the needle to the side and take a small stitch.  Pull the thread through.

Make a small stitch right on the upper right hand dot

3) Re-insert the needle in between where the thread originally went in and came out – you are taking a backstitch.  Then work the needle in and out to load several stitches onto the needle and pull it through.  You want the stitches to be small…no larger than an 1/8th of an inch.  Whenever you pull the needle through, start again by taking a small back stitch.

4) When  you get to the pin, pull it out.  Don’t sew past the dot.  Your last stitch should go through the dot.  I do a small backstitch and pass the needle through the loop and pull it tight.  Then snip off the excess thread, leaving a small 1/4 inch tail.  I then finger pressed my seams toward the dark color.

5) Now add a third square to create a row.  You will create three rows – two with your first fabric at the ends, and one with your first fabric in the middle.

A whole row sewn together

6) To pin two rows together (make sure you pin the right two rows together…remember a nine patch has a checkerboard effect) lay the two rows right sides together.  Pin the upper left dot as we did for sewing two squares, then also pin the dots that are where the pieces meet.  If you finger pressed the pieces all correctly the seams should lock into place against each other.  Then sew across, just like for the single squares.  When you get to a seam allowance, don’t sew it down.  You are going to push the needle through to the other side of the seam allowance right on the dot and continue sewing.  Take back stitches on either side of the seam allowance.

Pinning two rows together

 7) End it just like a single piece – on the dot, with a loop knot.  Then open out the pieces.  To reduce bulk at corners you’ll want to flare out the seam allowance, as below:

Flare the corners out to reduce bulk

Now sew the other row in the appropriate place.  Look for the checkerboard!

Congratulations! You've got a nine patch.

Next time we’ll talk about quilting it!

Guest shot of Krypto the dog:

Krypto!

First: a big Pioneer Quilter thanks to two of my heroes – Annie Smith of Quilting Stash and Jennifer Ruvalkaba of Patchwork and Pacifiers.  Annie was the first person to leave a comment on my podcast’s blog.  Jennifer mentioned me in episode #13 of her show.  Thank you so much for your encouragement, ladies!  I can’t tell you how excited I was when I realized you both might have taken a listen. 

And, yes, I am a dork.  I easily admit this.

Some other podcasts that I mention on today’s show:

• Alex Anderson’s Quilt Connection
• Allison’s Within a Quarter Inch

And one that is now retired but is still worth a listen:

Nadine Ruggle’s Driven to Quilt

Today my major topic is the Queen of Hand-piecing herself – Jinny Beyer.  IMO Jinny owns a great majority of the credit for the interest that hand-piecing has.  I would love to meet her in person some day…and taking a piecing class taught by her would be the bee’s knees.  Jinny, call me!

Hello all you pioneer quilters out there!  This marks the beginning of my jump into podcasting.  I’m really excited to bring a spotlight to my favorite aspect of quilting: handwork!  In this episode I talk a little bit about my goals for the program, as well as the types of things I’d like to talk about and the format I’d like to use on the show. 

In this episode, I mentioned the book that I initially learned quilting from,  Fons and Porter’s Quilter Complete Guide.  I still use it and it has sadly fallen apart.  They have a hard-cover version for sale on their website for only $20.  I think it is well worth the price.

If you’d like to send me some email, my address is kelley at pioneerquilter dot com.  I hope you enjoyed my first show!