Today is National Quilting Day, and I have been celebrating in earnest.

I have been working on my latest block for the Dear Paulette quilt – you can see a little bit of it in the back of the photo. However, it is my first advanced difficulty block, and it’s definitely not ready for its grand reveal. I’ve only got 12 more pieces to sew on to it, so I’m hoping you’ll be able to see the finished product in a week or so.

My big quilting efforts today have been in the area of hand quilting. My quilt guild, Quilters Anonymous, is having their annual quilt show this weekend, and I have signed up to demonstrate hand quilting to quilt show visitors tomorrow morning. So, I wanted to flex my hand quilting muscles a bit to prepare for tomorrow.

Since I’m never going to finish piecing the Dear Paulette quilt … okay, “never” is a little strong, but I’m at least eight years out … I have a second project going that is already in the quilting stage.

I usually quilt in a hoop, as you can see from the photo. The bonus of a hoop is that you can rotate it 360 degrees, so you can always quilt moving the needle in the same direction. I learned to quilt moving the needle towards me, and quilting in any other direction doesn’t come naturally to me.

However, I’m not sure how the hand quilting demonstration at the show works – this is the first time I’ve signed up for this job. My guess is that they are going to have a quilt there for me to work on, and that it will be in a big stationary frame.

My frame quilting skills are a little rusty. On the rare occasions when I quilt in a frame, I tend to stand up and constantly move to different sides of the frame so that I’m always quilting towards myself. While this is okay at home, I’m concerned (and justifiably so!) that if I do this in public, the public will laugh at me.

The other option is to practice quilting away from myself now, in the privacy of my own home, so I can do it in public without causing people to literally or figuratively roll on the floor.

So, I’ve got my hand quilting project in a hoop, but I’m steadfastly refusing to turn it so much as one degree, and am brushing up on my “quilting away from me” technique.

I’ve found the easiest method for this is to use a thimble on my thumb instead of my middle finger. The quilting stitch is the same, only the jobs of the thumb and middle finger are reversed. So, instead of the middle finger pushing the needle down to the underside of the quilt and the thumb pushing the fabric into position for the needle coming back up to the top of the quilt – the thumb pushes the needle and the middle finger positions the fabric.

Initially, I was trying to do this using the same thimble for my thumb as I had been using for my middle finger. However, it turns out that people’s thumbs are usually bigger than their middle fingers, so it wasn’t the most comfortable solution. I’ve recently invested in a second thimble in a larger size, which is making quite a difference.

Hopefully all of today’s practice will pay off tomorrow morning, when I’m quilting with an audience. If you’re in the Seattle area, come check out the show tomorrow. Just try not to laugh too hard at my quilting antics.