Advent day 20 – Pretty stitches

Have you ever done any hand quilting? I think it can really add something extra to your quilt.

For this year’s Advent, Trailhead Yarn hand dyed us these lovely colors hand quilting thread! I love their thread. And they come on such pretty bobbins.

Don’t put them in your machine as bobbin thread though ;) They really are meant for hand quilting.

You can use a fabric marker to make some shapes, stars, lines on your quilt. Then take a thread and make some pretty stitches. Don’t give it too much though, just add the things you like, where you like.

Stitches

When you have done hand quilting before, you can go ahead and start stitching. If this is your first time, here is some more information.

• You can make stitches that go through all the layers of the quilt. But since we add mainly decorative stitches, it’s also fine to just stitch (embroider) through the top layer. Especially on the appliqued pieces the fabric is a little bit stiffer which makes stitching through all the layers harder.
• To connect the wagon to the train you could use a Chain Stitch
• For the stitches around the train and the wagon I used a Running Stitch and on the presents I used a Double Running Stitch
• For the little stars you can use a Star Stitch

Here are some things I added to my trains.

Outlines around the train and wagon

Diamonds in yellow

Lights garland on the tree

Stars in the sky

Bows on the presents

I Can’t wait to see what you’ll be adding to your quilt!