hand stitching questions?
 

Do you always mark the fabric so you know where to stitch? What happens if you hand sew a square or a piece of fabric that needs cutting later on? Won't the stitches unravel? Even if you back stitch every so often.

I would think hand stitching would tend to unravel if you cut the stitches. As for marking, over time most people can eyeball the seam width. Of course, I don't hand piece so I'm sure there will be many people chime in with more expert answers.

When hand piecing, you never cut through your stitching line. That's why you can't strip piece if hand quilting. Machine stitching can hold up to being cut, but not hand stitching.

It is traditional to mark the sewing line on your patches, and then to hand sew starting 1/4" in and ending 1/4" from the edge, backstitching at start and end. Jinny Beyer, who is famous for her hand piecing, does not mark the sewing line on her patches. She eyeballs the 1/4" seam (and sometimes checks with a fingernail). Later on, if she needs to adjust a seam, she simply re-sews it if the first seam will be hidden or undoes and re-sews if necessary. If you can get hold of one of her DVDs or videos on hand piecing (check your library), she does a great job of showing how you can hand piece very quickly.

When hand piecing, be aware that you piece with only a single thread.

I was taught to hand piece by 2 wonderful ladies. It was a class at our Library. We did a whole quilt. We marked our 1/4 in. stitching lines. Say your sewing 2 squares together. we stuck straight pins, straight thru the 2 pieces, where the 1/4 in. seam intersected. We started stitching in the center of the block, working toward the corner, when we reached the corner, our needle would come up right at the intersection, remove that pin, and start toward the other corner, stitching where there was not a stitch before, and working past where you started, toward the other corner, when you get to that corner, turn as before and go back to one stitch past where you started in the center. This way you have one continuous line of stitching, no spaces between stitches. Your points are always points, and you can make any pattern, no matter how difficult. One of the blocks they had us do was 12 1/2 inches and had 84 pieces in it! Best class I ever took.

That class sounds amazing! So, if I was hand piecing and wanted to do the disappearing 9 patch, all the pieces need to be cut before I start hand piecing?

I love making quilts but I find my favorite part is hand stitching the binding down. I love sitting and doing that. So a friend thought maybe I would like making my quilts by hand.

If I'm going to be cutting across a stitch line I put in a tiny knot or otherwise secure my stitches before and after where the cut will be.

A tiny drop of "fray stop" works well if you have to cut through your hand stitching.

Just my opinion, but i think the time spent marking my stitch lines is more than made up for by the speed with which i can sew the seams and the ultimate accuracy of the piecing. ... and personally i'd never cut through a hand stitched seam line.