a stitch in time.....

Back when I was working with Wichita Webmasters on my website design, one of the things I had to decide was  the name of the site.  One of the names I came up with was "a stitch in time..."  Of course that name was already taken but it doesn't prohibit me from using it here as the title for this blog entry so that I can do an update of the Dancing Horses wall hanging. 

Once the decision was made on how I would border this fabulous panel (went with a triple border with crazy quilt blocks in the corners), the next decision is...how should I quilt this.  All machine quilting using metallic gold thread?  A combination of the metallic thread with black thread?  Outlining around the blocks in the panel?  Outlining the horses?  The first decision was an easy one, I would machine quilt around the blocks in the panel using gold metallic thread.   If you have even sewn with metallic thread, you know that patience is required.  About half way through it,  and about the 12th time the metallic thread had either broken off or started unraveling right in the sewing machine, I was beginning to question this decision. I persevered, taking many breaks so as not to get COMPLETELY frustrated.  I immediately changed to black thread to stitch in the ditch around the borders.  This may sound odd, since i am a quilter but I have not done any hand quilting in a long time.  I am making this wall hanging to put in a fiber show at the Shelburne Arts Co-op which will be hung the end of February and will feature not only my work but the work of all the members who work with fiber. This meant that I had a few weeks before this project positively had to be done so why not do some hand quilting around the horses?  So, I have been spending my evenings hand quilting.  I like the looks of the metallic thread but it is also a bear to work with  hand quilting also.  It is VERY difficult to knot it.   The decisions was made to use both black and the metallic thread throughout the panel.  At this point, I am partially done with the hand quilting and am liking the result.  My finger tips have formed the trade mark calluses all hand quilters have.  Am I going to be able to price this wall hanging in order to get something for all the hours of hand quilting I have put into this???  Of course not.  Would it be nice to be able to charge for all the hours of hand quilting...Yes!  But one does need to be a realistic.  Whoever purchases this will do so because the loved it and it is my only hope they will appreciate what went into the design of this piece and also the hours of hand quilting.