Progress on my wonky basket quilt. It’s been a LONG time in the making – I’m thinking it’s been at least 4 years since I started it as I remember doing some of the appliqué blocks while sitting in the hospital with Mr. W nearly 4 years ago.
I started by outlining each basket. Then I did a 2nd row. Then I became obsessive and decided to draw on the Japanese Boro and Kantha stitching styles and I just kept going around and around the baskets until I reached the edges of the individual blocks. It’s very meditative – doing this type of stitching. I typically do about an hour or two of it in front of the TV each night – or until my naughty finger gets sore. My callus is developing nicely!
I’m about 2/3rds of the way through the basket section. I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do in the borders….I’m of two thoughts – one doing a cross hatch about 1″ apart – the other is to outline all the motifs once more and then do trailing lines through-out the background with bees and bugs and dragonflies here and there. The second option is almost a little too cutesy for me – but I’m considering it.
This is the quilt where I’m using Finca Presencia Perle cotton 12 and the wadding/batting is a woven cotton fabric that is used in tailoring suit coats (think it was call Light Quilters wadding or something like that – I bought it at A2F in Canberra). The batting is very light weight – midweight between a muslin and a cheesecloth. It’s very easy to quilt through and will make for a nice, lightweight quilt.
Oh my!!!! You know I love that kind of stitching. But I’ve never done it on anything that big. I know that fabric you’re talking about (for the batting) and it is a great idea to use that when you are going to do this much stitching. I would vote for outlining the border motifs and just echoing those lines like you did in the blocks. Was that one of the choices??
Thanks Debby. Echoing the border motifs is certainly another option – although I must say…..I’m starting to get sick of echoing. 🙂 I have 3 more basket blocks to go.
Oh Kris! This is absolutely darling! What lovely work you do!
Thanks Kristi! Can’t wait to start on our Gypsy Wife quilt. 🙂
You do beautiful stitching…I love the baskets. While I mostly do machine quilting, I like to do echo quilting also. .
Thanks Gayle! This has been a long project but I’ve enjoyed each step of it. I mostly do machine quilting also – but do enjoy hand quilting – especially in the winter.
Kris I love your quilt, looks awesome!!
Thanks Twyla! Hope all is well in your world.
Your stitching is completely impressive – wow! You have definitely captured that Japanese feel.
Thanks Carly! I really enjoy this style of hand quilting. And the thread is a dream to work with.