Hand Quilting Scrappy Thousand Pyramids
Hello Dear Friends and Readers. welcome to today’s post. Today I would like to share and hopefully inspire you with you my Scrappy Thousand Pyramids Quilt. Last night I finished putting the binding on after recently finishing the hand quilting. Luckily I managed to find a similar fabric in the French General range to use for the binding.
Here is the link to the original pattern made with 5” strips for easy peicing.
Scrappy Thousand Pyramids Quilt and Lessons in Pyramids
I had decided that hand quilting would be the better option for finishing this quilt. The main reason is that I suspected trying to free motion quilt around or over the intersections of the pyramids might not be satisfactory. The other reason is that I do love antique quilts. I think that this had that sort of a look. Many of the fabrics, (but not all) are French General. My solution was to hand quilt it. Having just finished hand quilting my grandmother’s garden like grandma used to make, Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt Like Grandma Used to Make I felt encouraged to hand quilt this Scrappy Thousand Pyramids Quilt too..
This was not particularly difficult as I just followed the seam lines, 1/4” away approximately.
For more information about the hand quilting process, I can refer you to a previous post in which I detailed my methods. All In Hand – Lessons In Hand Quilting
While it may seem a big task to some of us, it actually turns out to be a lovely evening activity. I think it’s a good way to quiet the mind and concentrate on just making some beautiful quilting stitches. This is a rather restful activity. On the other hand, there is wrestling with a large quilt on the sewing machine, which I still love by the way. If however, there is no urgency to finish the quilt, then a little bit of stitching done each night turns out to be, in its own way, quite efficient. Perhaps, during this evening time, is not necessarily when we might be at our best to be doing free motion quilting. This is probably best reserved, in my opinion, to a daytime activity.
To me, this was a good opportunity to try to continue to improve my hand quilting stitches.
TIP
Maybe at this point, you might be thinking 🤔 ahh but at night time, the lighting is probably a less than ideal. Obviously if you have a directional lamp that can focus on your work, that would be nice, however, a better option maybe what I have been doing. I have been using a headlight at night. This turns out to be really good. One can adjust the beam to be downward looking and brighter on the work. This way it’s still relaxing and a large amount of overhead light is not required. I believe there are all different kinds available now for camping and in hardware stores. The one I am using is called Bilby. It has a rechargeable battery if you want to look it up here is a good review.
https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/knog-bilby-400-lumen-silicone-headlamp/
Hand Quilting Basic Requirements
Quilting Hoop
Quilting Needles
Thimble
Quilting Thread
Small Scissors
Small bag to keep the thimble, scissors, thread, and needles
Optional Headlamp
One of the very nice things about hand quilting is that it is very easy to clean up the quilt top as you go. Snip off unwanted threads etc. And I only used 2 needles for the whole quilt!!
Hand Quilting The Borders
For the borders, I continued the triangle theme. I did not mark the quilt borders. I just followed the finishing points of the pyramids. I adapted the triangles for each border according to the width available. Overall the quilt is lovely and soft and drapable due to the hand quilting.
It is lovely to finish a quilt. It is one less in the “to be quilted pile”.
I do believe that my stitching has improved a little from the beginning to the end of the hand quilting process.
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Have a wonderful day or evening wherever you are in the world.
Susie
© Susan Stuklis 2023
You do lovely work. Your quilt is beautiful!! I’m always concerned with how tight my sandwich layers are. When long arm quilting the quilt is always so taut. I have experimented with some hand quilting and the back is usually a little ripply. What is your technique to maintain a smooth back?
Hi Judith. Thank you your great question. I think it is important to understand that it is imperative for the long armer to have the whole quilt and layers taut but for hand quilting and FMQ the process is different. I generally pin bast my quilt for quilting. I leave plenty of room between the pins. For the quilting, I start from the centre and work my way out. I use a hoop. Each time I move the hoop I am checking the back with my hand to make sure that it is as smooth as the front. I am then able to adjust the front and back easily if necessary as the quilting progresses. I pretty much take the same approach but without the hoop for FMQ on the machine as well. I hope that helpful.
WOW your hand stitching brings these fabrics to life. I absolutely love your quilt. Once again you’ve inspired me to keep working on my hand piecing quilt top project that I plan to hand quilt. Thank you. I have yet to find a comfortable thimble so I will check out your link. Thank you so much for sharing your quilting joy ❤️
This is a beautiful quilt! Hooray for your choosing hand quilting. I am not a fan of machine quilting at all, though I know it is often the practical solution. I love the colors of this quilt and the quilting adds SO much to it.
Your quit is beautiful! Hand quilting just adds a different texture than machine quilting. Happy stitching!
Hello Susie,
Just beautiful, specially love the hand quilting.
I always love quilts but have a really soft spot for hand quilted ones. They seem soft and more cuddly to me. Thank you for sharing. Better go back and so some more hand piecing and hexies. Have a lovely week.
Chris
What a gorgeous quilt! I particularly love the scrappiness, and the fact that you hand quilted it. It’s a feast for the eyes. I’m currently working on a hexagon quilt, piecing it by hand, and once the top is all put together I’ll decide if I want to quilt it by hand. It makes a nice portable project, which goes in hand with all the fabric I’ve been cutting into ‘pre cuts’, and if its large enough I get a cut or two for the hexie quilt. Getting to the end of cutting up the scraps (thank heavens). I see the smaller offcuts have multiplied in numbers to the point that I need to do something with those next. “Make it yourself” fabric, sewing the bits and pieces to a foundation fabric cut into blocks, and those make lovely quilts to donate, too. I sort by colors and just sew it into a lovely jumble of color blocks. Hate to waste….
Wow! It is so lovely to look at and it must be delicious to wrap up in. Those French General fabrics are amazing, aren’t they. I love the way hand quilting provides so much texture. Good job!
Very nice. I was told that one of my quilts was a version of 1000 pyramids so I hopped over to take a look. Can you tell me the time period of this pattern and possibly the region they were popular
It is hard to say. The antique examples I have seen range from 1850 to 1930. The older examples were from Pennsylvania. The fabrics of your quilt would be a clue to the time frame.