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About Me

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I love anything creative...I am a busy mom of three (+4 dogs, 1 bird, 1 bunny, and 1 sweet husband) who sometimes wishes I had more time/energy/talent to devote to just being creative!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

What I lack in experience....

Here is my confession for the day. I will try just about anything once. Which puts me square in the beginner category of most things. I'm OK with that...mostly. As the saying goes what I lack in experience I make up for in sheer enthusiasm! Though I have dreams of being an expert anything, I also have the attention span of a cocker spaniel and am easily distracted.
So my new thing for today is hand quilting. I just finished a table runner for spring, and thought to myself "hmmm it's small enough what a great opportunity to give hand quilting a try". So I just spent the past half hour hunched over on my couch stab stitching about 4 square inches of quilt. I managed to bend my sewing needle in half and also sew the skin of my middle finger to the table runner during that time. I am going to keep going on it, but for today I had to set it down. I feared I wouldn't be able to get my shoulders down from my ears if I didn't just put it down and step away. Someone out there tell me this will get easier! I'm not going to post a pic until it's done, and don't be surprised if the photo of it is oddly blurry.And this is blue bunny finished. I have already made my husband promise to teach me how to use his Dremmel to carve Easter eggs into the frame (the trying new things again) so I am making my own frame for it. Below is my new start. It's Uber Egg, from Bent Creek. I am in a spring mood, so my house is being redecorated as a giant Easter egg since I can't wait for the flowers and green grass to reappear!



4 comments:

Siobhán said...

I am ROFLOL at your forays into the quilting world. Don't feel so bad... when I was doing applique (for a quilt), I managed to sew the block to my shorts. LOL I am a 'jump in head first' type person, too, so I can relate. Truthfully, I am always a bit worried when I take my stitching in to be framed, in case somebody tells me I'm doing crewel work or something similar instead of cross stitch.

Your pieces look great--lovely stitching!

Sharlotte said...

The hand quilting WILL get better Stephanie! I promise! Let me ask you a few q's first. How are you going about this? Are you using a thimble , remembering to use hand quilting thread? Using a handquilting needle? I only ask these questions because I know that a lot of first time handquilters do not realize that there is a difference in thread and needles and there is. I know you have ventured into piecing but I couldn't remember if you had actually quilted a quilt or not. I always tell everyone to expect to go through at least a half a package to a full package of handquilting needles per quilt. The reason is because they are so thin and easily bend or break. The good thing about the breakage is they usually break mid-stitch so they are secured in the top of the fabric and can easily be removed. Because of the pieces being in the quilt , you usually don't have to worry about them flying off and hitting you or someone else. Handquilting takes practice and you will eventually get into a groove. Btw... I still will sometimes run the needle into a piece of skin even after all of these years, but it doesn't happen as often as it used to.

Karen said...

Love your finish. I can't wait to see your frame....love the idea of the eggs in the frame!

Irene said...

Love your blue bunny, can't wait to see the frame.