Hand Quilting for the First Time

Since I am making an effort to finish the quilt tops that I have done (I have 6 currently) the jelly roll race quilt was next on the list. Then I had this wonderful idea to hand quilt it. I thought it would be the perfect way to learn to hand quilt, after all how hard is it to sew a straight line by hand? Harder than I had expected it to be that's for sure.

I wanted to use several different colors so first I bought DMC floss. I though that would give me the best color selection. After doing a few rows I wasn't sure if the 2 strands I was using would stand up to washing. I asked several of my quilting tweeples and they recommended using pearl cotton instead for the look I wanted. So I learned that lesson the hard way and back to Joann's I went to get pearl cotton. Luckily I had a ton of coupons so every skein was discounted. I'm sure the people behind me were thrilled with me, but I every penny saved is more I can spend on fabric :)

I decided to just do a running stitch down the center of each row. The first few rows I did were pitiful and they got pulled out pretty quickly. Then a funny thing happened, I found my rhythm! I am using pretty big stitches so this is not traditional at all, but I like the way it's coming out. Is every stitch the same length, no. Are my lines totally straight, no. But no matter what it's mine and will be a nice cozy quilt for the guest room.

So next time you try something new don't be too hard on yourself. Be proud of what you have done!

Sha :)