A few cool ones

We've been having a few cool days lately and I have taken advantage of it and have been back to doing some hand quilting.

Often times, when I get to the sandwiching stage, there is no complete plan of the design I want to hand quilt or the design gets changed as I go along. I let my quilt talk to me and tell me what it wants and any markings that were there are ignored. Changing plans after sandwiching becomes hard to deal with.

As you see below, the cross hatch stitching was definitely a go and those lines were marked before this quilt was sandwiched. The areas around the flowers were left unmarked as there was no plan yet for that area.

When the quilt is in my hoop, it is nice and taut; but out of the hoop, it relaxes and and the areas that have been quilted bunches up making any more marking almost impossible or lopsided. In the past I've always put a book or something solid that will fit underneath the hoop and mark in areas on the quilt as I go. It was always a hassle and wobbly. Enter my lovely DH. He cut out a piece of wood that will fit inside my hoop.

It fits nice and snug.

Which then allows me to start marking as much as I want. Once all the marking is done for this area, the board is removed and I'm ready to start hand quilting.

This might sound silly to some of you; but for me it works like a charm.

Have a great day!