quilting + thimbles

This weekend I made some good progress on hand quilting my Modern Medallion quilt.  I have been stitching away at it slowly, slowly between things.  Now that the end is near, I can feel my excitement building. 

crinkles

So many hours auditioning fabrics, mitering borders, embellishing, tinkering, trying to allow my creativity free range.  With all this handling, the quilt is nigh full of wrinkles, as if it's already been washed and dried. 

quilting, quilting

The colors still sing to me.  I can see now more than ever why Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy (legacy collection fully available at Moona Fabrics) has enjoyed such a loyal following.  In my rendition I wanted to mix in teal as a strong color and accents of golden yellow.  I'm tickled with the way the Kona everglade solid I've used at center and surrounding the mini dogwood blossoms adds depth to an otherwise light and airy quilt.  Such fun to add hand quilting over the solid teal bits to soften them both. 

on my table

I'm binding my Modern Medallion quilt now.  After that, there's only the large hand quilting portion designed for the wide gray border left.  Haha, yep, only that (I'm ever optimistic).

Oh, and I've been wanting to tell you about thimbles!  If you recall, I bought a cute jelly thimble from Pink Chalk Fabrics to try out over this new bout of hand quilting.  I quite like it.  It's more comfortable for me than a metal or leather thimble.  And, if I hadn't tried anything else, I would have stuck with the jelly thimble.

But, BUT, I am completely converted to Thimble-It self-adhesive pads.  Megan posted about these recently, so I ordered a pack from Amazon.  These pads stick on wherever you like, acting more like a callous than a thimble.  You get 64 in a pack for $7-8 (with shipping) and you can reuse one pad several times before it loses its stick.  I greatly prefer these to a thimble because my finger is free to breath and to help with grasping or pulling or whatever.  I truly forget it's on (have been known to go wash my hands and oops! there it is).  Plus, I can put it on the side of my middle finger, which is where I personally need it.  Also, no sizing problems with this type of product, as opposed to a thimble.

So, obviously, I really think that anyone who does not already have/love a thimble should try Thimble-It.  Here that, Handstitched students?  I'm linking you to the Colonial brand on Amazon, which I purchased (and, full disclosure, it's an affiliate link, so I do get some change if you buy through my link to keep me in books and notions).  But, you might also find this product at your local fabrics chain store and save on the shipping.  So look for it!

Once my hand quilting is all. the. way. finished. I'll be sure to share the quilt here!