Obsession

This past week I did something crazy.  Something that kept me up until 3 in the morning twice!  While I am a night owl, I'm too old to be staying up that late.  Most of the time I'm smart enough not to try it because I know I'll pay for it the next two days.  What kept me up?

That's right - hand quilting.  This was one of the guilds I belong to brown bag challenge.  Here's a post about the one last year:

http://moosequilts.blogspot.com/2011/07/quilt-show-part-ii.html

This year we got a bag of ninety-six 5 1/2" squares.  After doing this for a few years, I wanted to really like this one.  I decided to channel my quilting ancestors.  I picked a red solid and a white solid and made an irish chain style quilt. 

I supppose it was because of the channeling of my quilting ancestors that the quilt asked me to hand quilt it.  I argued.  I don't hand quilt.  It didn't work.  It had to be hand quilted.  I bought crochet thread and embroidery needles and got started.  I used thin Quilter's Dream cotton batting, nice flannel backing, and spray basted it.  I also didn't use a hoop.  You can see from the picture above that I wasn't too critical of my skills.  While I agreed to hand quilt it, that was the most I could commit to.

When I got to the end of one thread, I couldn't lose my place so I threaded another needle and put a couple stitches in.  Next thing I knew I was at the end of that thread and had another one threaded.  Next thing I knew it was three in the morning! 

One interesting thing is that I have several kids who have claimed it.  My nine year old says she likes it because it is unique.  My four year old likes it because it has Mickey Mouse one it.  My two year old likes it because it is soft.  I think they like it because I was working on it around them.  My four year old loved to "help" me pull the thread through.

I love how it turned out!  Thank you quilting ancestors!