Hand Quilting

 I wanted to take "My" quilt along on our beach trip last week. As I was pulling together what I needed to pack I decided to upgrade my hand quilting supplies from this gallon zip lock bag into something more convenient.

 One of the big box stores had craft storage containers on sale 1/2 off. I like this one because I can move the dividers around to the size storage area I need but change it up as time goes by. Love that everything is now in one place, no more dragging zip baggies around. Notice how many standard white quilting thread spools I have ? I found them on sale long ago at $1.00 a spool, can't pass a deal like that up!!

I didn't get a lot of hand quilting done while on vacation but it was nice to sit and quilt once the grands finally went to bed each night. Now that we are back home I am loving having quite quilt time in the evening

Can't remember if I shared the completed quilt before. I did FMQ on the piece work leaving the white borders for hand quilting. Normally I wouldn't bind a quilt until it was completed but....knowing it was going to be drug around from pillar to post, in sand, dirt, and toddler crumbs I figured adding the binding might be a sanitary solution :)

This is the first time I have tried to hand quilt a full quilt with Perle cotton. I am still getting use to the difference between traditional quilting thread and Perle cotton. I think I am making my stitches to small but now that I have started with this small stitch I figure I better stick with it :) The other difference I have noticed is using Bee's Wax on Perle cotton makes pulling the needle/stitches really difficult. Once I skipped the thread waxing things are going much easier.

Today is a me day :) I have done a few odds and ends around the house but not much!! Tomorrow DD#3 will start back to work so...I will have Kara and Tater Tot, figured I better rest up for the big event. It's a hand quilting sorta day.

Has anyone else tried hand quilting? Do you have any tips to pass on?