What was I thinking? I’m trying to have a zen experience with my quilting by breaking up the negative space in my Modern Quilt with lots of different quilting designs. But I think I went a little overboard with all the small scale background fillers!
I actually do like the texture the quilting is adding to the quilt, but when you see how little of the quilt I’ve actually finished compared to how much is left to quilt, you’ll start to pity me…
The picture below shows about 1/4 of the quilt finished. I’m adding larger scale textures in each of the charm squares and a smaller scale background around each of the hands. I’ve quilted 12 out of 42 charm blocks which represents about 5-6 hours of solid quilting so far.
I am having fun quilting different designs in the blocks though. I’ve outlined some elephants, practiced my pebbles and grids and even quilted the alphabet on the lined paper fabric! Here are a couple more closeups, just for fun!
I’m linking this blog post to the Free-Motion Quilting Project and WIP Wednesdays so I can share the insanity!!! This will definitely be a long term project. But if I quilt 1 block a day, I can finish it in under a month!
I used a clean toothbrush dipped in water to erase the blue pen marks once I quilted them.
For those of you interested in what materials I used, I started with 1 charm pack of Moda’s Bungle Jungle by Tim and Beck, and 2 1/2 yards of White Kona Cotton Solid. I sewed together a layer cake for the backing.
I am doing all the quilting with 60 weight polyester thread in a light gray. I chose Superior Threads bottom line in both the top and bobbin. It breaks too easily in the top thread for my taste – but it is very fine and blends beautifully. My batting is wool which gives a nice faux trapunto look to the little hands.
I hope I get more done by next week! I think I’d better go work on my jelly roll quilt now…..
Christa Quilts 
This has given me so many ideas!!!! It is beautiful
What a beautiful quilt and love all the different types of quilting around the precious little hands!
Hi Christa,
I adore the little hand designs! You’ve given me an idea. Since he was 2.5 weeks old, I have cared for Brody, my girlfriend’s little boy. He is 2.5 YEARS old now, and has a special bond with both myself and my husband. I have made a quilt top of the ‘Cars’ theme (from Disney/Pixar), using my own charm pack squares (I have the 5″square die with my Accuquilt Studio that my sweet husband just bought me for Mother’s Day). I have been trying to decide how to quilt it, and the brainstorm I just got is to trace his hand I’m paper, and then trace it onto a sheet of plastic template material. Then use his own hand print for the quilting design on his quilt. I will just quilt in the ditch and use the hand print, though. He’s getting excited to have his ‘Cars blankie’! I don’t want him to have to wait toooo long:-) It would be neat to have a memory quilt with the hand prints of his hand size at 2.5 years old.
What a cute idea!
I love the hands design and the texture that you’ve given them. Looks like it will be worth all the extra work.
It’s turning out beautlful! Love those hands and all of the other quilting
Not only do I love the quilting work you have done, but I love the quilt itself. Really excellent work!
I love this…definitely will be worth it. Looks absolutely gorgeous.
Great quilting design! My first instinct when looking at this would be to put my hand over one of the little hands. I think the final product will definitely be worth the effort.
Thanks Jeanne! They are actually charm squares which measure 5″ each (4 1/2″ finished) so the quilting is pretty small scale!! Everyone has given me encouragement enough to keep quilting and not throw it into the UFO heap!
This is absolutely adorable! I love the little hands. I thought your squares were about 10″ but now I’m thinking more like 6 or 7″. All of your work is certainly paying off!
It might take a while to quilt, but you will have a FABULOUS quilt when your done. Love the little hands, just says touch me!
The hands look great on this! Lots of time, but it looks to be worth it. Which marking pen did you use?
Barb, I used an inexpensive water soluble pen from EZ Quilting. I give them away for free on my website with any $25 purchase 🙂
It may be taking a very long time, but it looks AWESOME! The little hands look like handprints in sand. Subtle, but very beautiful.
One thing though – make sure to soak the quilt after finishing all the quilting in order to get ALL the blue chemical from the pen out. While it will disappear in water, mostly it’s just sunk down to the batting layer of the quilt, so the chemicals are still there, even if you can’t see them.
Keep going! Get an audio book or CD going, sit down, and just quilt the snot out of it Christa!
Thanks Leah – I appreciate your encouragement! Great tip about soaking the quilt, too.
I love the quilting! Do you sell the little hand stencil?
I wish I did! I found it at a quilt shop years ago and have been waiting all this time to find a use for it!