MNQuilter

I am a fairly new quilter and have only machine pieced my quilts. My DD is begging me to make her a quilt and I really want to try hand piecing. I thought these blocks looked like they would be perfect for this trial. Does anyone know where I can find the templates to cut out, it looks like all the directions are for rotary cutting. I thought templates would be easier since the sewing lines are there then. Maybe I'm wrong. Any tips would be very welcome! Thanks

Jen :)

Lisa T

Can you post a link to the pattern?

Also, how old is your daughter? Will she take care of the quilt? For my boys (3 and 5), who tend to destroy EVERYTHING, I would machine piece a quilt. If she will take reasonable care of it, though, then go for it! Maybe this quilt will be the one she keeps forever and then passes on to her kids.

patricej

i can't tell which blocks you're talking about so i moved this to Main where more people will see it. you'll get more advice that way.

you can use the rotary instructions to cut out your pieces and still stitch them by hand. if you plan to draw the stitching lines, neither method will add or reduce the amount of time your project will take. (come to think of it, that's also true even if you don't plan to draw stitching lines.)

MNQuilter

Sorry, wasn't very clear, I want to do the Pioneer blocks. She is four years old and tends to love her blankies, she isn't rough on them at all. Maybe I should machine piece this one and look at hand piecing one for myself! What a concept! Keep one of my own quilts! :)

Shemjo

Good idea, to machine piece her quilt and to do a hand pieced quilt for yourself! I love thinking out loud! :lol:

I am not familiar with the Pioneer blocks. :? Are they from a book?

MadQuilter

It sounds like you want to try hand piecing to see if you can do it and to see how it differs from machine work.

It also sounds like your little one really really wants a blanky of her own. Why not whip one out on the machine for her? She won't have a clue what "hand-made" means at her age. She will love whatever you make.

Your idea of making the hand-sewn project something without pressure is a wonderful one. I have a hand-prep project in the works that uses up scraps and I get to it when I have time. (I also have about 15 other WIPs going on - some with deadlines.)

You may be a newbie, but you are speaking the language of a true quilter.

Have fun.

Bevanger

Welcome from Washington

Prism99

Be sure you understand how to hand piece before you start. It is not the same technique as is used in machine piecing. For example, with hand sewing you sew corner-to-corner, not edge-to-edge as in machine quilting.

You can rotary-cut for hand piecing. If you want a marked line for your sewing, you can make a template to place on the rotary-cut piece. Either mark all around it with a pencil, or just mark the corners. Many hand quilters simply "eyeball" the seam allowance between the corners.

Check your library for DVDs. I learned how to hand piece by watching a Jinny Beyer DVD from the library -- very informative.

Tippy

OK.. here is advice from an old hand at hand piecing... yes, by all means cut templates. mark fabric on wrong side on stitching line using either a lead pencil or an archival pen or a white pencil.. which ever is appropriate for the color of fabric, etc. then using a ruler mark 1/4" seam allowance. This will be your cutting line. I cut all of my piece by hand.. it really helps when you are just starting out, to have everything marked.. and to pin everything. accuracy makes it MUCH easier. when you start to piece .. pin pieces together. As someone else said.. you will stitch corner to corner.. Do not stitch into seam allowance. Do not make knots in thread. Just backstitch about 3 stitches on each end of seam.. it's hard to quilt through knots. If there are any questions I can answer or any help I can give you.. just let me know. there are a number of good websites to get patterns for templates. The best thing for templates is clear template material, an extra fine Sharpie marker (be sure to transfer info like number of pieces to cut, and grain lines onto the template) I keep a notebook with patterns and piecing diagrams in a notebook, so if I want to use that pattern again, I already have templates.
http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltpa...lock-Patterns/ . http://www.quilterscache.com/ here are a couple of websites for free patterns. Have fun