Hand Pieced QAL Mini Quilt Finish

My hand pieced quilt is finished! Whew! A big thank-you goes to Patty at Elm Street Quilts and Kristin at Simple.Handmade.Everyday for hosting this event. Their tutorials were so thorough and helpful, and I appreciate their kindness and dedication to teaching the timeless craft of hand piecing. I enjoyed being in the QAL with so many other participants and saw many beautiful blocks during this process. Most mentioned how relaxing it was to hand piece. For me it was not that relaxing - LOL! I think I'll save my close handwork for cross stitching and crochet. 😉

Hand piecing has been a pretty intense project for me. After working on the first block, I was about to quit because my hands and neck were sore! I persevered and got my hand sewing muscles on board. The blocks were increasingly complicated, and I learned to sew through seams, not over them. Over time my hand stitching became a little more consistent.

Simple sashing and borders seemed appropriate for these traditional blocks. I was going to add cornerstones in the teal, but I decided to just use that color in the binding instead.

Hand quilting seemed daunting, but I took inspiration from Janine Marie at Quilts from the Little House, who has mad quilting skills and did a fascinating series of posts of her hand-quilting career. So I plunged right in. It took several nights in front of the TV, but I finally finished. I sandwiched the quilt with regular batting, and after consulting with Patty, I realized I should have used thin batting, because for me it made small stitches impossible. So my quilting has a few big, irregular hand stitches - hah! However, as my my Mom used to say, "it'll never be seen from a galloping horse!"

Detail of my grandmother's quilt

I am including a photo of a detail of one of the quilts my dear Granny Mitchell made. Look at that beautiful design she quilted! Her stitches were tiny and evenly spaced. After learning how to make a quilt by hand, I cannot fathom how she had time to make the many quilts that my family still enjoys today!

This little quilt will reside in the guest bedroom with the Scandi throw pillow I made with the same colors.

Quilt details:
9 blocks hand pieced and hand quilted

Finished size:
22" x 22"

Fabrics used:
Desert Bloom Mesa Ivory Plus by Sherri & Chelsi for Moda
Floral Scatter in Teal, Bouquet in Red, and Floral Scroll in Brown, from Bloom Collection by Makower UK
Orange solid from my stash

Background: Off white background from my stash

Binding: Turquoise - Linen Texture Collection by Makower UK

This post is linked to Patty's Hand Pieced QAL Grand Prize Linkup. Click on the link to see many beautiful versions of this quilt!