Sunday, May 31, 2015

New Direction

For weeks now i have been dreading working on my table runner. The dark green machine quilting just wasn't doing it for me. In fact, I absolutely hated it. I dreaded going back to my machine and continuing with the quilting. I have to admit that when I started the quilting I was actually surprised that I had bought dark green quilting thread, I expected to have a beige thread. What was i thinking?
After hemming and hawing and dreading, I finally made a big decision. I started removing the machine quilting.
 You can see the markings of the inner diamond near the pin where I removed the first row of dark green thread. I am going to keep removing the machine quilting row by row and then hand quilt with a beige thread as I go. Here the inner diamond is now hand-quilted and the green thread has been removed from the second diamond. Much better.
 Here is a close up of the hand-quilting.
This will take longer to finish, but I will be much more satisfied with the final result. The machine quilting wasn't giving me the look I wanted. I don't know whether it was just the dark thread or the fact that the needle was struggling with all of the intersections. I hope I like the beige thread on the dark green fabric, but I can always buy a spool of dark green hand-quilting thread if necessary.

While I was quilting on my front porch this morning this beautiful cardinal was serenading me.
I was trying to zoom in to get a better shot when he flew away.
This week, I have also made some progress on my Prairie Schooler Santa.
Baker Beach has gotten some attention also.
Last week I was here:
This week I have moved on to a darker gray. I think you can see the progress.
I am joining Kathy on today for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Tomorrow I will be a part of the Stitchery Link Party over at Super Mom - No Cape. I hope you will pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.
Thanks for stopping by!


14 comments:

  1. Wow, you certainly have got a lot done. Hope you are satisfied with the runner now, I love the fabric on it.

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    1. I still have a lot to do on the runner, but at least now I am looking forward to it.

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  2. You are right, the hand-quilting is looking really good. And you have some very nice stitchy projects on the go.

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  3. Love the runner and the colour it is beautiful .

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  4. You made lots of progress on your projects. The bridge stitchery is gorgeous!

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  5. I haven't visited in a while and you have made real progress. Love the gorgeous colors!

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  6. Baker beach is coming out so beautiful. And I think you will be much happier with the table runner when you are done. Great work!

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  7. Good for you to switch to hand quilting. Of course, I'm partial to hand quilting. ;-) Seriously, it's best to just bite the bullet and switch, even if mid-stream, to something that will be more pleasing. It would be a shame to end up with a finished project that you're just not totally pleased with.

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  8. Sometimes you just have to switch it up for the results you are happy with. Enjoy your slow stitching!

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  9. I can understand :) I recently did something like that with a pillow top. I didn't take out the machine quilting but for the middle I wanted it by hand. There truly is a diffferent 'look' between the two types of stitching! :)

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  10. Glad to hear you are happier with the hand quilting...some quilts just need those hand stitches! (or should I say they "demand" hand quilting!?) Pouring rain here--a great day for hand stitching.

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  11. Taking out machine stitching is such a pain but sometimes it just has to be done. I hope you enjoy your handstitching and are happier with how it looks.

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  12. I know what a gut wrenching decision it is when you decide to rip out machine quilting, so I understand how unhappy you were with it. I also know how much better it feels when you've found the right path that finally satisfies what you first intended. So, good luck with the handquilting this time around, and cheers to you for having the courage to fix things, and not just stick it in a closet like most people!

    I think it's going to be a lovely runner.

    Julie @ Pink Doxies

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  13. The hand quilting on your table runner looks wonderful. I love your two cross-stitch projects too.

    Life has been so busy that I'm late getting around to visiting everyone but I wanted to stop by and thank you for linking up to last week's Stitchery Link Party! Aloha hugs!

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Thanks for your comments! I love to hear from you.