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.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like
Susie’s Roses Romance Quilt and Free Pattern
Have a wonderful day or evening wherever you are in the world.
Susie
© Susan Stuklis 2023