Hand quilted baby blankets

 I started thinking tonight about my projects that I finished (or started) in 2010.  I realized that I finished these during the time that I thought that I had lost the camera so did not have photos of them.  This one was the second of the two that I did during a 3 week class at the local quilt shop.  It is a rose pattern in the center with a feather pattern around it.  It is about 32" x 32".  The lesson here was that I needed more practice making a scalloped border.  The front is a batik with an off white cotton fabric backing.  I used the polyester batting that was recommended in the class for both of these projects.  I found that, much to my surprise, I really like hand quilting.  I don't use a hoop, although that was part of the class, and I don't use between needles.  They are just too small for my hands.  I use the #11 milliners needles that I also use to applique with and I like them a lot.  I copied these 2 patterns from the instructor so I can reproduce them if I want to, but I am thinking that I would like to make up some of my own patterns for the Winter Moonlight and Dresden Plate quilts. 

This quilt is a slightly bigger one with a square border.  It is about 36" x 38" long with a tulip pattern.  The best part of this pattern was the diamond border around the tulip center.  I really like the traditional diamond pattern.  It shows up well and sets off the center very nicely.  The front of this is an off-white cotton fabric and the back is white muslin.  I used light fabric for both of these since the method being taught was to trace the pattern directly onto the fabric with a blue washable pen, then sandwich and quilt before washing the piece to remove the blue marks.  I did find that both pieces shrunk pretty significantly and that gave the hand quilting a different look and drape than the instructor's pieces where she washed and shrank the fabric before quilting.  When I do another piece, I'm going to pre-wash the fabric.  I will do more wholecloth quilts since I love the way they look.  But hand quilting is time consuming.  I worked on these two quilts every day for 4 weeks to finish them.  And the first one had to be washed in cold water with detergent to remove all the blood from the fabric.  Getting my hands sufficiently calloused to do all these little stitches without a thimble was a 2 week job.  And of course, after a few weeks of not quilting, now I have to start over.