Originally Posted by dsj

I am a hand quilter, that is all I do. I love it. It does take practice. Before you begin on your top start out on a scrap of muslin draw a pattern with circles, lines, whatever and practice with a few different size needles. I like the John James large eye needles. Some of the needles are hard to thread with hand quilting thread. Save yourself the aggravation and look for the large eye needles. I would practice until you feel comfortable with your stitches. I use a paddle thimble too. It gives more consistent stitches and you don't end up with thimble finger. You hold it in your hand and rock it back and forth, it takes a couple of minutes to get used to it but I love it. I use a size 12 needle but it is small and hard to feel, I also use the needle grabbers they are little rubber disks that look like mini jar openers. Size 10 & 11 needles seem to be the most popular.
I use all different frames, depending on the size of the quilt and sometimes no frame at all. My favorite for convenience is the pvc floor frame. Good luck to you, I hope you enjoy hand quilting as much as I do.