Friday, August 21, 2009

Sew Crafty Friday - Hand Quilting Patterns

I've been working on hand quilting my grandson's Spiderman quilt for a few weeks and now need to work on the borders. There is a three inch wide red border and a 4 1/2 inch wide blue border. In the past I made quilting patterns from cardboard. Instead of marking all the quilting lines on the quilt ahead of time, I mark the section I am working on as I go using the cardboard pattern.

I like to use the quilting patterns in my all-time favorite quilting book, "Lap Quilting" by Georgia Bonesteel. I bought this book through mail order in the eighties. I have made some quilts using the lap quilting method, but the best thing about this book is the wonderful quilt block patterns, hand quilting patterns and great "how to" hand quilt instructions.

I have used the book so much over the years that the dust jacket is very tattered:



But, underneath is a nice green hardback book:



These pages show some of the quilting patterns:



The way I make my cardboard quilting patterns is to make a copy of the design I want to use with a copier. I can reduce or enlarge the design to fit the area of the quilt I'll be using it for. Then I cut the pattern out, tape it to a piece of lightweight cardboard and cut it out.



For the borders on the spiderman quilt I will be using this small pattern piece. I'll use a water soluble quilt marker to trace around the pattern piece. I will trace around the pattern over and over, overlapping the one before each time. The finished design will be sort of a chain/diamond look.




Here are some cardboard pattern pieces that I have used in the past. You can see that they have been well used. One of them is a cable design that turns out really well. One of them looks like ocean waves and was used with a sail boat pattern.



Maybe I can show you the finished quilt soon.

6 comments:

Susan said...

I'd love to see your finished quilt! I've tried hand-quilting just straight lines on a doll quilt, and I can't seem to get the hang of it. Maybe one of these days . . .

Little Penpen said...

Yay, you are really moving along. I have the same Georgia Bonesteel book, but the dust jacket left many years ago. In fact, I don't even remember mine having a dust jacket, and I bought it new too. :o) I have used the same cable pattern, the flower one, and the wave one too. Your quilt looks great and your grandson will love it.

Little Penpen said...

Okay, here's the plan.... you and I will get in the car, drive to Burnsville to see all the quilt block signs and then to Hendersonville (or is it Henderson) to find Georgia. thanks for the blog info.

katylinvw said...

i have never tried my hand (sorry, pun) at this type of project, but it is definitely intriguing to me! i may have to take the leap :)

the great adventure

Alexandra said...

How interesting! I had always wondered about how this was done...thanks for sharing. :)

Mom2fur said...

This is going to be awesome when it is finished! Can't wait to see a pic.
Hey, is SCF back again? I finally deleted Shereen's blog from my list because she hasn't posted in months. Is someone else running SCF?

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