25 Trees Quilted

I finished hand quilting these trees yesterday. And I feel confident enough that I won't do a shabby job on my DJ quilt. I certainly learned a lot about my hand stitching technique as well as the significance of the 1/4 inch seam allowance.

We often forget the significance when we machine sew and quilt. But when it came to hand stitching there was a great difference in the ease of stitching and the ability to make small stitches when the seam allowance protruded into the stitch line. All those untrimmed paper piece folds in the tree construction. I didn't faithfully trim them all. And I paid.

When things were good, I could get my stitch length down to 12/inch. If I had to stitch through 4 or more layers....I had to work to maintain 8/inch. That's how we learn.

I had intended to go over all my block while I assembled the quilt and now I'll do so with a sense of purpose, reduce the seam allowances to an even 1/4 inch where ever possible.

And this morning I completed the first corner block. I started this last night at our meeting. 24 left!