Quilting can be painful....

My little helper doesn't help much when I am marking...

I ummed and ahhed over whether to use two thicknesses of batting or to trapunto this. I went with the latter (someone give my brain a nudge). I started on a box of new safety pins. Why on earth do they arrive closed? I think I probably used a few hundred pinning this quilt. Pinning wasn't so hard, I pinned them in place and sat of the sofa watching TV whilst I closed them. Opening them was the problem, I ended up with a very sore left first finger and thumb. But this is not the reason quilting hurts. I stitched round every flower, every stem and every feather with freemotion quilting using water soluble thread.  I love the effect but had forgotten that if you are planning this, then it is a good idea not to do it on something with as many elements with so many shapes.....

Then I started cutting away the excess batting. This is taking ages and I cannot do it for more than a couple of hours or so without a break.

And this is why quilting can be painful right now. So far these are the only scissors which slide nicely between the batting and the quilt top. (you have to be very careful not to cut through the quilt top, very very careful)

I end up with a red sore bit on my thumb knuckle and the gouge you can see is the bit that hurts the most. It goes back into shape after an hour or so......

These are the ones I have tried. The top stork scissors are too small, the next are the ones which hurt, the silver ones are the new Sulivans with nice big finger holes but their points want to go through the quilt fabric as well as the batting. The green handled ones are the Karen K Buckley ones, I have been told if I sand off the tips of these with an emery board, they might be OK and the Fiskars are just too big except for alongside the straightish bits like the intertwined chain on the outer border.

As I am writing this post, the postman arrived with this selection. I have yet to try them so will let you know how I get on with them.

I went shopping in Monmouth yesterday, I was bitterly cold and the ducks were all hunkered down on the river bank. I cannot imagine they are very safe from foxes here. The river has quite a bit of water in it right now and I imagine that they normally reside on little islands.

I know may of you live in Australia and the USA and don't get to see many things this old, so here is a photo I took yesterday of the Monnow Bridge right by my local supermarket. It is 7 or 8 hundred years old. It is only open to pedestrians these days. You can find out more here.

I am counting the cutting out of the trapunto as hand work and therefore to do it in the evenings (quite honestly, it would hurt too much to work on cutting it all day). So I have decided to go back to my version of Esther Aliu's Heart's Desire. It has moved house with me without me adding anything to it in the last couple of years. I love this quilt, I love the design of it but I do admit to not getting the same satisfaction on working on the design of another. I am finding the same thing with the Di Ford Mystery Quilt, it is another lovely quilt, another lovely deisgn but it doesn't give me the same excitement as working on something I make from the design process onward. So it you hear me say I will start another of another designer's work, please remind me that however wonderful it may be, I will not feel the same engagement with it. I stumbled a little on my Heart's Desire when I appliqued a top and bottom border only to find I had not allowed for the sashings in my measurements and then we moved house. So onwards and upwards, I shall finish it, not sure how just yet but I will!