Encouragement for New Hand Quilters! My VERY First Quilted Item (humiliating myself here, LOL)

[Hillbilly Hen]

Kathyinmo has one of those huge commercial machines, yup. She machine-quilted a quilt that I made for myself and I hand quilted one that she pieced. And I pieced a quilt that she had already cut out all the pieces for, then sent the top back to her as a thank-you. I hope she uses that on her bed one day. I swear, maybe we ought to start a business together, LOL. Well, nah, that would take all the fun out of it for me. I think she already has a business with her machine, though.

I use the thimble on my middle finger of my right hand and my thumb as a stop for the stitch, plus a finger on my left hand to help guide the stitch back up from the underside. All in all, I'm using four or five fingers at a time to quilt every stitch. I cut the finger off an old set of rubber gloves to wear on the forefinger or thumb of my right hand to grip the needle to pull it through, too. Those needles can be slippery.

What a great idea!

 

[speckledhen]

Oh, yeah, works great, Laura! I use rubber gloves when I do the dishes, but only the right hand, so I have several left hands under the sink and I use them for this purpose.

 

[minniechicks]

they are all wonderful

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you, Dana. I hope you're still working on lots of projects yourself!

 

[Judy]

I just found this thread....

 

[speckledhen]

Hey there, Judy!

I'm about to begin quilting the Courthouse Steps bed runner. Have to decide exactly how to do it. I want to do it without stencils if I can; well maybe all except the border, not sure yet.


You guys have got to see this site I just found! http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/custom/quilt-pattern-playground/quilt-pattern-playground.php

You can put in colors, play with arrangements, etc, etc. It's the coolest thing!


Judy, I'm also cutting out and piecing a new version of the wallhanging you have coming your way later this week. I don't have all the same fabrics left (gosh, my stash of browns is really lacking!), but it should be almost as appealing, I think, as yours.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

Cynthia, your wall hanging is sure a beauty. Love the colors. I was wondering what kind of batting that you use for your quilts? Your stitching is so small and for the life of me I cannot get my stitches that small with regular polyester batting. Since I got a quilting machine I don't hand quilt nearly as much and I really do miss it. But it is fun using the quilter too, trying to learn meandering feathers...lol.
Looking forward to seeing the Courthouse Steps bedrunner.
Just checked out the free quilt pattern site!! OMGosh; I will never get anything done now!!!!! Thank you for sharing, it is a blast!

 

[speckledhen]

In this wallhanging, I used 80/20 cotton poly blend batting piece that I had around left from another project. I have always used polyester up until I found cotton/poly blends or straight cotton a few years ago. I use low loft all the time, though, no matter what type it is.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

I don't have any low loft, that may be part of the problem (other parts, me, age, eyes, fingers, etc.,) I will look into some of that batting for my next hand project. I keep the big rolls in a "6 wt." around for the machine so thats what I had been using. Probably need to get some of the other for the hand work. Thank you for the information.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

You guys have got to see this site I just found! http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/custom/quilt-pattern-playground/quilt-pattern-playground.php

You can put in colors, play with arrangements, etc, etc. It's the coolest thing!

I spend too much time on the computer already, now this???? Thank you very much! Seriously!