1.28.2012

My oldest work in progress?

For some reason, I've been OBSESSED with quilting lately. That, and fabric (looking at it, buying it, arranging it in coordinated piles, etc.) The fabric obsession isn't something new (duh), but I've really been quilting a lot lately. Like every single day for the last few weeks, which is pretty impressive for me.

I can't say that I've gotten a lot done, but I've endeavored to do a little every day, even if it's only for a half-hour or so. The main thing I've been doing is handquilting, and there is a reason you don't see a lot of blogs focused on showing people's handquilting work: it is so very, very slow!

I think it's a good thing my first two quilts were a) bed size and b) hand sewn and handquilted. It's taught me a bit of patience (this was about 15 years ago and before quilt blogs) and I had no clue that it didn't take most people three years or more to finish a quilt! Now that I've gone more the machine route, my patience isn't quite as good as it used to be, but I still enjoy sewing and quilting by hand. In my opinion, it's usually more relaxing than machine sewing.

Anyway, one of the projects that I've dug out of my (very crowded) box of works in progress is my first attempt at my postage stamp quilt. (I'm currently on version 2 - see *** details below.) I started the first version years ago, way back when I first started quilting, around 12-15ish years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long!

I began by cutting 1.5-inch squares out of the very first fabrics I bought (boy, my taste was interesting) and from scraps my mom had. I started sewing them together by hand with white squares between them. My interest in the project waned and I abandoned it pretty early, and it's been sitting around ever since. (With the second version of the postage stamp quilt, I decided to get rid of the white and just work with all the other fabrics -- so far I like that a lot better.)

It seemed wasteful to just let it sit, so I finally pulled it out of my WIP box a few weeks ago and took it to quilt camp, with the plan to layer it and make it into either a doll quilt or a wallhanging. I decided to handquilt it, and have made a little bit of progress, although it's kind of hard to quilt, since there is so much fabric between the layers due to all the seam allowances (and it wasn't easy to press it very well.) I've just been doing diagonal lines through the white blocks in a rainbow thread. Here's a preview picture:

IMG_2503

*** (I first mentioned working on a postage stamp quilt (this was version 2) on my blog back in February 2009! Links to current PSQ project: postage stamp quilt.)

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