Sweet and Simple Owls

Owls (1)Here's another old work in progress finally finished!  This one started several years ago.  It must have been not too long after Tonya Ricucci's Word Play Quilts book came out.  I love this owl print and I wanted to highlight it.  I also wanted to hand quilt.  Remember, this was several years ago.  I started having some hand issues and the hand quilting was really bothering me. Owls (2)

I took a few years off of my old way of hand quilting (with a rocking motion).  I tried big stitch quilting without a hoop for a while, but recently I got back into the hand quilting as I mentioned in the previous post.  My new method is working well for me and it didn't take long to finish this one.  Actually, I have been hand quilting everyday for the past couple of months and enjoying it immensely.  Unfortunately, my knitting has taken a hit, but you can't have everything!  All of this quilting is done free hand.  I hate taking the time to mark and I hate having to deal with leftover lines.  Sometimes I'll do a little scratch across the fabric with my needle tip, but mostly I just wing it.  The more you do it the easier it becomes.  I'd love to know, have you tried free hand quilting?Owls (3)