[Hand] Quilting

Awhile back I came across some bird nest fabric on sale and just had to buy it.  It made me think of my GrannyAnn and her love for birds, and though I didn't know what it would be, I wanted to use it to make something for her.  I've already made her a full size quilt with a different set of bird motifs, and when I remembered how pretty she likes to make her table in the springtime, I thought of a table runner!

This was the first small quilted project I've made in awhile, and as I was finishing up the piecing, I realized it might be the perfect thing to try some hand quilting - for the first time!  So I pulled out some betweens, some thimbles, and a large embroidery hoop.

Though I have longed for the experience of hand quilting, I've held off.  Though it's hard enough to quilt using a small, old machine with a walking foot, due to my back/neck/shoulder/wrist woes I've been fearful of trying it by hand.  I've learned to sit with reasonable posture at the sewing machine, but wasn't sure how I could make hand quilting work.  Lately though, I've not been as pleased with the results from my machine.  I feel that as my skills are growing, they have reached the limits of what my machine can do, and I've been thinking that the next step in pursuing this passtime might require a substantial investment: either a great, ergonomic hand quilting frame or a machine designed for quilting.

So this little project was a bit of a test to see which direction I might take, and what I learned is that either I'm not doing it at all right, or I'm most definitely a machine quilter!  Though after a bit I was able to get consistent, pretty stitches, it created a great tension in the muscles of my hand, wrist, arm, and shoulder.  I had very little endurance for the work with that kind of pain and cannot at all imagine doing this over a whole quilt!  Also, though the hand-stitched look is appealing, as I think through the type of quilting I do most often, it seems more appealing to be able to match a bobbin thread to the backing and the top thread to the quilt top than to have the same thread visible on both sides.

I'm not giving up though - going to search for some tips or videos online and see if I can improve my method, and overall I'm completely pleased with how this pretty little thing turned out.