My 4 seasons swap is turning out to be beautiful. Double cross hatching is not for the faint of heart. It is grueling and many times I have thought, "I would be done by now if I had done single cross hatch." Now the process is not the problem. I LOVE to hand quilt so the extra stitches are not the issue. I am not sure exactly what the problem is. Here is a picture of what happens... .JPG)
To give you an idea of the sizing here, if you measure from the outer line to the inner line of one of these squares, it measures 1 inch. I start with a straight needle, it ends up bent in a matter of 1/2 an hour and within a 45 minute span it is broken off into the quilt. It is one of two problems. I am hand quilting on Kona Cotton for the first time or it is the batting. My Hobbs is no longer carried at Joann's so I grabbed their version of it. I am use to quilting through "butter", so this is awful. My stitches are not as close, though I am keeping them even, which in my mind is the most important thing. I will trudge on through this and should have it done and in the post by the weekend.
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These next talking rocks are "fake" but are blended into a fountain full of real rocks. .JPG)
This is also a fake "rock"...it is really just glass shaped like a stone, but I carried this in my pocket for some time when I was needing an attitude adjustment. 
And this one is my favorite. Anyone who has been to my house in the last 10 years, has seen this rock on my sink in the bathroom. It is a real stone.JPG)
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12 comments:
i like your talking rocks. I thought I was the only one who had a problem with bending needles. I don't know why that happens. It is just when I am starting to like the needle it bends so much I am afraid to continue to use it. I just think things are not made as well as they used to be. I can't wait to see the finished product.
Love the rocks! They make me smile as I've seen many of them :)
As for the needles, I started using #10's...partly because my fingers aren't as adept as they used to be, partly because I can't see those tiny little eyes anymore and partly because of the bending/breaking issue.
I've found #10 Roxanne's and #10 Jeanna Kimball's to both be much more durable than the #12's I used to swear by. I rarely bend one, and breaking only occurs after quite a bit of quilting with them.
If you have some scraps of your old batting, do a test to see if it is the Kona cotton that is giving you a problem. If not, then it could be your new batting.
My needles also bend when I quilt but they never break! Your quilting is great.
I prefer my needles to bend slightly while im handquilting but they very rarely break. It could be ur batting or its just that needles arent made like they used to be (just like everything else thesedays!!)
Nice your son's rocks.....
for the needles when I quilt sometimes they bend and sometimes they break.
ciao ciao
A lot of people do seem to have a love for rocks, & stones. Yours are very nice.
Sadly, I'm no help at all when I comes to hand quilting. I'm sure your quilt will be lovely when it's finished. Press on......
And she quilts! I didn't even look at your blog name when I came to see your HMB.
I'm a wanna be quilter. My mom is fantastic. I'm a hack! I figure you gotta start somewhere!
I'm liking you more and more. Do you drink coffee, too?
momtogirls5
I love your rocks, especially the two with Scripture! Sorry about the needles. I haven't really dived into hand quilting yet only machine, but I do my binding by hand and my needles always end up bent...but never broken.
Bren I'm having a real problem with needles too. Tonya (Lazy Gal) suggested a particular brand but I can't remember which one. I'm going to ask her again, as I have trouble too. I am using a #10 between at the moment and it's okay, but I can't load up as many stitches as I like. I'll let you know what Tonya recommends.
I just love those rocks. I also bend needles a lot when either quilting or embroidery.
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