Monday, November 7, 2016

Moving Forward with my Piecing Group Project

I belong to a bee that does hand piecing, and I've been working on the same project for several go-rounds, I think since the mid 2000s. It started with tiny kite-shaped batik pieces, three of which make up a 4" triangle. These tiny pieces will eventually make up a queen size quilt.
Cut pieces, marked for hand piecing. Short side finishes at 1"

The batik triangles are now pieced into rows, interspersed with black triangles. For my previous turn to hand out, back in April 2015, I had the rows on my design wall as I was prepping for the next step, which was to add black pieces to the ends of the rows to create side borders and even out the ends of the rows.
Design Wall April 6, 2015

The border pieces were added, and now it's time to start joining the rows together. Each member of Piecing Group will get a packet with half of one row, and half of the row beneath it, and they'll hand stitch those rows together. In preparation, I'm setting the parts up on the design wall so I can pack up the kits.
Design Wall Nov. 7, 2016

As you can see, it's now wider than my design wall. Up at the ceiling, the top 2 full rows have been sewn together and the third full row is halfway sewn on. Some of the remaining half-rows have been placed on the wall in pairs. Rows 4 & 5, left to center will make one kit, rows 4 & 5 center to right will make another kit, etc. The photo hanging on the wall will be cut into parts for the instructions in the kits.

I'll need 18 kits in all to hand out on Dec. 6, but I'll have more than enough. This will be the last time my Piecing Group friends work on this project, because after this, there will be too few sections to make enough kits to hand out again.

So far every stitch has been sewn by hand, and not EPP. It will be difficult for me to finish this project after I get the completed half-rows back, because I'll have to hand stitch the rest together myself, and my hands are not up to much hand sewing because of the arthritis, etc. I'll just have to take it a little at a time each day. This is definitely a WIVSP - work in very slow progress.

Someday this will be finished, and it will be named "How Many?"  How many batik fabrics? How many little kite shaped pieces, all individually cut and marked for hand piecing? How many triangles? How many hexies? How many people worked on this project? How many go-rounds of Piecing Group? How many years did it take? I have notes in the project basket, so I'll have answers when the time comes.

Do you have a WIVSP? Is yours moving forward, even if very slowly?

Linking up with Patchwork Times and Em's Scrapbag

12 comments:

  1. It's really beautiful, I like the color wash effect, it sparkles!

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  2. WOW -- this is going to be amazing! I've never heard the term "WIVSP" before, but I'm afraid that applies to ALL of my quilting projects, especially the hand stitched ones! But I've got a doctor's appointment this afternoon and I'll be bringing some needleturn applique along for the waiting room... It all gets done eventually, one stitch at a time.

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  3. I'm having a hard time understanding why others are working on your quilt. Do you work on theirs?

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    1. Libby, we have a sub-group of our quilt guild called the "Piecing Group." There are 18 members, and each month we meet at a different member's house. One person hands out a block (or, like Jan this time, some section of a quilt to sew) to everyone else, and we generally hand-piece them. The following month, the person who handed out the previous month hosts the group at her house as a sort of "thank you." Refreshments are served. We don't do any actually sewing while we're together - it's just a social time to talk, show off projects, etc. So, once every 18 months you get to have other people help you piece a quilt!

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  4. Thank you for the update on this lovely project, and I love the name it will have and all the details that will go into making such a special and detailed quilt.

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  5. what a wonderful project! thanks for sharing

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  6. That's such a fun project! I love these types of things, so many people pitching in. Gorgeous!

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  7. It's like small stain glass windows. It's going to be gorgeous when it's all together.

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  8. It is gorgeous! I still think of you when I see my (now complete) WISP.

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  9. Slow but steady will definitely win here. It's gorgeous

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  10. Slow but steady will definitely win here. It's gorgeous

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  11. This is visually stunning. I love how it looks like round pieces of stained glass!

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