So……
Over on Facebook I am really enjoying hanging out with the Celebrate Hand Quilting group. Lots of good hints, tips, recommendations and quilts! Wow, I feel like such a loser when you look at their quilts! I especially like the instant feedback on everything. They are a very encouraging bunch! And so smart!
A few days ago I asked for help on what to do with the border, on this wall hanging, that has been in the works, for quite a while now. The circle quilting is finally complete and who better to go to than my quilty friends both there *and* here.
I pretty much discounted carrying the circles into the border because I think I wanted something different; to showcase, not dilute, what the rest of the quilt was doing. And I think my borders needed to be wider to pull that off.
One suggestion was straight line quilting, 1″ apart, on the inner (rust) border then crosshatching outside of that. The problem is math. Using 1″ straight line quilting, the math just doesn’t allow you match it up and continue on with crosshatching. The crosshatching ends up at about 5/8″. Pretty tight and heavier quilting than the balanced quilting throughout the rest of the piece.
And you can expect the opposite when you reverse it… Nice 1″ crosshatching causes tight straight line quilting, half of which are now hanging mid-air, with nothing to match it up with. I like that it’s tighter and kind of *points* to the quilting on either side, but…. they are just hanging there…
Then I could always just use crosshatching all the way up through both borders and be done with it. Marking and quilting would both be done a whole lot faster!
Or maybe you have another completely different idea.
I have nothing else to quilt on and the Olympics have started. I need help!
What do you think? Any thoughts?
Sewfrench 
Love it completely crosshatched. It’s a beautiful contrast to the circles without looking like a mindless add-on..
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I was recently taking pictures of a bunch of my earlier quilts and forgot how often I used to use crosshatching. I never have been a fancy quilter, mostly just outlining. Thanks for your opinion, Shirley!
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It looks great with the crosshatching! And we love to have you hang out with us on Celebrate Hand Quilting!
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Thank you Caron. You are doing an amazing thing acknowledging and supporting and even showing off that there are still hand quilters out here in a world of longarms! Thank you for all the communities you have created!
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I think it looks wonderful. Wouldnt chg a thing.
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Thanks, Cindy!
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I really like how you’ve done the cross hatch on the corner and diagonals on either side in the last photo. It gives some contrasting lines and texture so I agree continue with that.
If you want to add some more pizazz how about some beads, or french knots or similar in the centre of each square that the cross hatching makes which will visually link the circles in the centre of the quilt with the border on the outside??
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Wow, I would never have thought to add beading or embroidery. It’s brilliant, but this baby is big, I’ll have to think about that!
Thank you!
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I really like the crosshatching! Your hand quilting is lovely!
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Thank you, Carla!
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