Conqueror of Hand Quilting

Take that you adorable little blocks!

We did it! We hand quilted 40 blocks! Sarah hand quilted like she was born for it!

This was a completely new experience for me. I always hand sew my binding, but I’ve never hand quilted before. I’m not sure if we can technically call it “quilting” since there is no batting in these blocks, but I’m going to do it anyway. In my eyes, it’s quilting. We top-stitched through multiple layers of fabric in a decorative and functional fashion. That’s quilting.

Now, our blocks are in the mail and the time has come to wait.

But, as I promised, I will not wait idly. It is back to the applique for me. I have fused all the designs onto the blocks and it is ready for stitching. I started that earlier this evening, but I’m honestly not impressed. My stitching is not what I would like it to be. Instead of disappointing myself, I’ve decided to take a day of rest. And by “rest” I mean blog about my sub-par applique.

This is a pretty serious blow to my fragile ego. I like to think of myself as proficient when it comes to applique, but these circles are killing me. They’re so small! How am I supposed to satin stitch this!? Oh, the woes of applique. Now I know why everyone avoided this pattern! I don’t mean that though. This is truly an accomplishment for me, even if my applique looks like it was stitched by a blind, epileptic monkey.

Now that I’ve confessed my shortcomings, I will actually go rest. Oh, please send me words of encouragement!

I’ve come too far to give up now!