Many, many moons ago (all the way back in June) I made a large scale improv quilt top. I loved its simplicity and modern aesthetic, it was such a perfect canvas for some serious hand quilting.
I planned to turn it into a sort of hand quilting sampler. Unfortunately, though, the more progress I made the less I liked the quilt :( I was more than two thirds done quilting when I decided to set it aside, hoping I'd start liking it once again after a little time apart.
And then I read an article by Lucie Summers on kantha quilting and I knew what to do. I ripped out all the previous hand quilting - it took quite a while and my fingers were ready to fall off, but when the old stitches were out I saw the potential in this simple patchwork and got excited about it all over again.
I decided to follow Lucie's advice and use simple turning method to finish the quilt, no binding needed. I used a combination of pink and white and black and white dots for the backing and pearl cotton #8 in gray for quilting.
My quilting lines are about 3/8" apart. As you can imagine, it took thousands of teeny tiny stitches to quilt this guy. I have never done quilting like that before, and I really don't see myself doing it any time soon either :)
But the texture!!! Oh, I just wish you could touch and feel the amazing texture this kind of kantha stitching gives the finished quilt. Pure heaven.
This quilt finished at 49" x 58" and it's definitely one of my all time favorite quilts.