The summer seems to have flown by. It is hard to believe that the regular baseball season is over, school has been in session for a month, that there is not much left in the vegetable garden, that our shop hop starts in less than a month, that Fall Quilt Market is in three weeks and that I leave in two days for two weeks in Nepal…Yikes!
Ok, I’ll take a big breath and give a few words of wisdom before I sign off and start packing. I have talked all summer about our annual shop hop, Quilters’ Quest, and I have shared with you the progress as I have worked on the quilt for our shop this year.
When I finished the top a month ago I really wanted it quilted. Since I pieced it all by hand (while watching baseball games all summer) I wanted it quilted by hand as well. I am amazed at how fast the quilting is going. So far I have only been quilting on it for three and a half weeks but I already have two thirds of it completed. But I guess if you are a little diligent and do some each day it gets done! I work on it an hour in the morning when I first get up, an hour during the evening news and three or more hours during the baseball game. Since I have a lot of travel this month, I won’t get it completely finished before the shop hop but I’ll come close.
I want to share with you two of my favorite tools when quilting by hand. The first is TJ’s Quick Quilter Spoon. I have been using this for years. It helps me get even stitches and protects my fingers. The second tool is some long-nosed pliers. While quilting, I usually get five or six stitches on my needle at a time. I’m getting a little arthritis in my fingers and sometimes it is hard to pull the needle through. A pair of needle nosed pliers does the trick! I just keep it near me on the top of the quilt and use it to pull out the needle. It saves the fingers and makes the quilting go quicker since I can stack more stitches on the needle each time.
We just had our latest shop hop meeting a few days ago. All of the shop owners shared their quilts. What a spectacular array! When you participate in the Quest, you can pick up a free pattern at each shop for their quilt. That’s a total of 10 FREE patterns! I am at the Studio every day of the Quest to greet you and hand out our patterns. I hope to see you then!
This year Quilters’ Quest will take place November 4th through November 13th.
Participating stores will be open Monday-Saturday 9:30am-6:00pm and Sunday 11:00am-4:00pm. Visit www.quiltersquest.org for details.
What is the pattern of the quilt pictured. Thank you
This is our 2016 Quest quilt. Free patterns are available to customers if they come into the shop during the Quilters’ Quest.
Wow! You are amazing, Jinny! Your stitches are so fine, they really make the quilt special! I will try the needle-nose pliers, I use the quilting spoon and find it very helpful. I’m watching your Nats play the Dodgers as I type this message, sure wish the O’s were playing as well. Enjoy your trip to Nepal.
Mally
Jinny, will you be in Houston after market? A couple of your former Jinny Beyer Club members would be delighted to see you.
Charlene Duran (now in Denver)
Unfortunately I am only making a quick stop in Houston during market. I hope that you all have a great time, it would have been great to see you!
Hi Jinny
I’m sorry to bother you but I can’t seem to find the pattern for the October block of Cosmos, I’ve tried clicking on all the pics but nothing seems to work. I also want to thank you for these gorgeous blocks.
Carmen
You are not bothering me at all! The Cosmos patterns are only available in my monthly newsletter which gets sent out on the first Saturday of each month. Click here to sign up. You will be able to download all the previous months from the newsletter that goes out in November.