I recently finished my very first hand-pieced quilt! This is the single-block version of the Harmony pattern by Patty Dudek (Elm Street Quilts) and Kristin Esser, and I made it as part of their ongoing handpieced quilt-along. The quilt-along isn’t over for a few more weeks, but once I got started on my mini quilt I couldn’t stop and finished mine early!
The pattern includes all the needed cutting templates, along with alternatives for the “stitch and flip” method as well. I chose to use the templates for my piecing, and cut each group of pieces as I went along. Patty and Kristin provided plenty of hand-piecing resources, which made this a very enjoyable experience for my first hand-pieced project. Since I was using black fabric as my background, I chose to piece with a dark gray 50 wt Aurifil thread.
Since the top was hand pieced, I couldn’t resist going all-in on the handwork aspect. I even hand pieced the backing! For that, I used three coordinating fat quarters I had in my stash.
For the hand quilting, I chose three coordinating colors of 12 wt Aurifil thread plus a 40 wt thread in dark gray. The dark gray quilting lines don’t show up well in photos because it matches the background fabric, but they add some nice texture in person. I had previously only hand quilted with thicker threads like 12 wt and embroidery floss, so using the 40 wt was a fun new experience as well.
To finish, I stitched on the binding entirely by hand as well. The result is a bright, starry mini quilt that I made from start to finish without ever touching a sewing machine!! I joined this quilt-along rather spontaneously to give hand-piecing a try, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the process. And while I’m certainly not giving up my sewing machine anytime soon, I do look forward to doing more hand piecing in the future.
The stats:
- Measures 28″ x 28″.
- Pattern by Patty Dudek and Kristin Esser.
- Fabrics by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics.
- Pieced with Aurifil 50 wt thread in #5004 (Grey Smoke).
- Quilted with Aurifil 40 wt thread in #2630 (Dark Pewter) and 12 wt thread in #2530 (Blossom Pink), #1147 (Light Leaf Green), and #2810 (Turquoise).
#saroy1sec #1secondev
It was fun to see the mini quilt progress on Instagram; it was evident that you were really finding delight in the handwork. How did you choose to do the binding – in the traditional sew it to the front and stitch to the back method or in a different way? I’ve noticed that a long of hand finished bindings are big stitch sewn to the front.
I did the traditional way — front and then back. For the front, I attached it with the same type of running stitch I used for all the piecing!
Emma is doing a great job holding your quilts!
Your quilt came out wonderful! I’m so glad you joined us for the QAL. Love the black background and your hand quilting. Welcome to the world of hand piecing.