Monday, February 4, 2019

Now What's in the Hoop?

Garden Mosaic aka Totally Demented aka Fractured Rainbows 
96 x 96

I finally have it pin basted! And it's in the hoop ready for hand quilting. I prefer using my square PVC hoop but that would be too dinky for this quilt.  My 18 inch wood hoop kind of disappears into the quilt. 

 I would prefer to do some big stitching in perle #8 or #12 but I don't have enough of any color of those threads on hand. I have some white hand quilting threads I will use in the white squares and probably use brown through the colored squares.  Might as well use what I have on hand. 

I hardly had enough space on the floor so I had to pin baste it in quarter sections. That's a lot of crawling around for this old lady.  I don't put in a lot of pins when I hand quilt so that made it go a little quicker. Even though the quilting will be simple I was not about to try wrestling this through my sewing machine.  And anyway...my main machine, a Brother Simplicity,  has to go to the repair guy again. It will not pick up the bobbin thread and make any stitches just like when I took it in last November. For the cost of continual repairs I'm tempted to buy a simple cheapie and just throw it away when it has a problem. 

I would direct you to the free online pattern but it doesn't exist anymore. It was a FreeSpirit Denyse Schmidt pattern called Garden Mosaic. Gayle, Sally and I started making it and referred to it as Totally Demented.  I only used scraps in rainbow colors so refer to mine as Fractured Rainbows. 


15 comments:

Teresa said...

Anxious to see what your quilting pattern will be.

---"Love" said...

"Demented" probably no where describes how you will feel after you get that big beautiful quilt hand quilted! I can't even imagine!! I really, really do like the quilt, but I never, never plan to make one! I'm just going to enjoy looking at yours! ---"Love"

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

This is such a gorgeous quilt - I know I say it every time I see it, but it is still true. Wow, hand quilting a huge quilt would do me in. I whined about a small square of quilting and it took me years to finish it!

Quilter Kathy said...

It is spectacular and I'm so happy you are hand quilting this gem!

cityquilter grace said...

wow looks like confetti...sooo pretty..i just finished a postage stamp quilt....tiny blocks make beautiful quilts!

Julie in GA said...

Wow, that is a huge quilt to be quilting by hand! Of course, I wouldn't want to wrestle it through a home machine either. So beautiful!

Ann said...

It's lovely. The demented part to me would be hand quilting this behemoth but I know you'll have it finished lickety split.

Phyllis in Iowa said...

I recommend using a vintage straight stitch machine for piecing. I currently use a 1910 Singer 9W in a treadle. I recommend at Singer 15 or a Singer 66. Both are electric. My "modern" favorite is a BabyLock Quilter's Choice with a large bed.
I collect vintage and antique machines and have lots of choices.

mangozz said...

I never would have guessed that you would be hand quilting anything this size, especially since there are so many seams. Do you still intend to do big stitch quilting even though you are using regular quilting thread? Thanks for the link to Sally's shortcut method. I might give that a try on a smaller quilt just for the fun of it.

gayle said...

Of course you two will have this finished when I'm still only half way done! I had to set mine aside while I got a bunch of gotta-do-its done. Now I'm finally ready to get back to it! Especially with your good example to egg me on! Enjoy the quilting!

Sally Trude said...

Your version is so bright, light and happy...you were very smart with your choice of the light.

Ellen said...

Your quilt top is really wonderful and I love that you are hand quilting it. :)

Louise said...

As Grace said above, tiny patchwork really is beautiful. It gives a quilt so much depth, interest and movement. This one is gorgeous to contemplate :)

Emily said...

O my goodness, that’s a lot of tiny pieces, no wonder you call it demented!!!! Looks great!

audrey said...

So perfect that you're hand quilting this one! It's so gorgeous!