The Farm Quilt An Update--post 6

Quilting pattern

When I last posted about this project last March, I had quilted a handful of the blocks. I had knee joint replacement surgery in April. I wasn't able to do much quilting until the last two weeks of May. Sitting continues to be an activity my healing quadriceps muscle doesn't like so I quilt a little bit several times during the day. Being able to quilt makes me happy!

I've finished quilting the blocks. To recap about the quilting of the blocks: using monofilament thread, I quilted around the print in the block center. Using quilting rulers, I stitched curved lines in the sashing and straight lines oriented vertically or horizontally in the half square triangles. It took me about two hours to quilt each block. 

It is silly to spend so much time custom quilting these blocks; but, my inner squirrel, Gertie convinced me that it was the right look for the project. I imagine that the sharp eyes of my now eleven year old granddaughter will notice all of the center block details. For that reason, it was worth my time to stitch that plan into the blocks.

Design and template used for sashing

As a reminder, she is the one who wanted these blocks. She organized the blocks, picked the sashing, cornerstone and border fabrics. With my help, she stitched the top together. She even picked the fabrics for the back. Again with my help, she made a pieced back.

Density of the quilting

To distribute the quilting evenly in the sashing, I used another template and quilted a curve. The curve points up in the lengthwise sashing and in the horizontal sashing the curve points to the right in some rows and to the left in other rows. It took me about 25 minutes to quilt each segment of the sashing.

Again, my granddaughter will see the pattern. I quilted this section with yellow 50 weight two ply thread by Superior. I joined the thread of the month club years ago and had just completed my collection when the company decided to produce this thread as a three ply thread.

Outer border detail

Longarmers had a lot of breakage with the two ply thread which was the issue that drove the company to make the change. I don't have an issue of the two ply thread breaking in my domestic machine when I'm quilting,  I've pieced and quilted with it. The company still makes the two ply for appliqué. It is available on prewound bobbins. In the meantime, I'll continue to sew from my thread stash!

To quilt the corner stones, I quilted around the stone print using the monofilament thread from Superior Threads. The density of the quilting is consistent across the quilt. In low light, the texture of the quilting shows and looks great. Touching various areas of the quilt will provide the recipient some tactile stimulation too! It took me about 10 minutes to quilt each corner stone.

To quilt the skinny inner border, I stitched in the center of the border using a red cotton thread. I didn't have to quilt it; but, quilting it improved the overall look of the quilt. 

Oops. . .time for a little ripping. . .

For the outer border, I am quilting around the trees and filling in the other areas with loops. I've one more border to go before I have finished the quilting! While I was quilting the border, I managed to snag a surplus block from another project and inadvertently quilt it into the project. I spent some time ripping.  

An almost quilted project

I estimate that when I am finished quilting, I will have have invested about 71 hours of time quilting this project.

Goal number six on my June list was to get back to quilting on this project. I have other projects waiting to be quilted. so making progress on this project is a big deal to me! Being rear ended in 2022 and knee surgery last April beat up my body so quilting wasn't doable. It's good I've figured out a work around so I can quilt again. I do have another large quilt pin basted so likely that will be my next quilting project. 

My plan is to quilt a bit every day that I'm in the studio so I make progress on this project. I'm so close to a finish!

What has made me push myself to return to the actual quilting was a conversation I had with myself. If I'm going to track fabrics used from stash, I must do better about the finishes. Completing a few a year isn't going to make a notable difference in my stash accumulation! I also need to sew with yardages rather than the chunks, strips and strings; but that process is for another today. 

I'm linking to Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilting and Cynthia at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework.