starryblu

Hello! I love hand piecing. I've always spent my evenings with some sort of project, and now I'm attempting to learn how to hand piece quilts. I know almost nothing on how to go about it.

I would love any tips or advice or just to hear from someone who likes to hand piece as well.

If you don't mind, I'll start with one question. I see a lot of machine-made quilts that are done with rotary cutting and strip piecing (good grief, I hope I'm using the right terms). Is that the way a person would make a hand pieced quilt? I saw a quilt made with half triangles, but didn't know which was the proper way to make it. I've done a little machine work in the past so I know the technique, but my machine decided to bite the dust. I tried hand piecing and discovered I prefer it since it does take longer. (I'm a bit of a slowpoke) I'd like to do it correctly, so I thought I'd ask.

Thanks for the input!

Doggramma

When I first started quilting, I hand-pieced my blocks. I liked hand work,but mainly my machine piecing was terrible. It helped me to lightly draw the quarter-inch seam lines on my fabric pieces. Now I’m pretty good at eyeballing it, but back then not so much! I used lightweight cardboard (like cereal box cardboard) to make my templates.

if you really like hand work, you might enjoy English paper piecing. That’s where you have little paper shapes (the “paper” is more like what index cards are made from) and you wrap fabric onto the shapes. The pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Eventually the paper gets pulled out. It’s such fun and so portable.

thimblebug6000

Maybe check out Jinny Beyer, she hand pieces and has books and articles you might be able to find at your local library.

Iceblossom

Most directions you will be finding these days involve rulers and strip piecing are designed for machine sewing. They can be adapted for hand sewing. The big difference is that in machine sewing we can sew long seams and then subcut them, we need to end our hand sewn seams in some way in order to do that.

Back in the day when I started, before rulers, even though I machine sewed, I followed hand rules. But I figured out I could chain stitch, cut grids and things like that. Back then, quilts had a lot more pencil on the backs than they do today! The common way was to have an exact shape you wanted and you drew that shape on the fabric, cut out some sort of seam allowance that you liked, and sewed on the pencil line.

I'd be looking at older books that contain "templates". In a modern book you have instructions telling you to cut a strip, and then into subunits. In the old days, they gave you actual templates for each log in a log cabin -- that sort of thing is more what you want.

bearisgray

Excellent book!
I think I loaned or gave mine to someone - and I don't think I got it back! Moral: Never - ever - loan a valued book to someone !

I have enjoyed hand piecing.

bearisgray

Jinny Beyer has several videos on youtube.com that are informative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnu7ow5mJJI

If I am going to use many pieces that are the same size and shape, I make two templates - one to cut around and one to draw the stitching lines around. I need "assistance" to maintain a straight line.

The biggest advantage to hand-piecing is that one can press the pieces any-which-way.

Synnove

Ginny Beyer is a great source. Another excellent resource is Carla Hassel's book "You Can Be a Super Quilter." Yes, you will want to use templates rather than rotary cutting. Hand piecing technique is very different from machine quilting. You will want to draw around templates, cut a quarter inch away from your drawn line, and then pin to match the drawn seam lines, not the cut edges. Carla's book gives great tips on how to do this accurately. When I first began quilting I hand pieced everything. It was fun, accurate, and portable. Many quilts were stitched together in the orthodontist's office and at ballgames. The quilts I made in those days still outshine the machine pieced ones, as the hand stitched ones are very precise and accurate. You will love doing this!

Tartan

Hand work can be rewarding and many antique quilts were pieced by hand.

juliasb

I have a notebook filled with different hand templates from old magazines. My oldest sister gave them to me years ago. I have used it to make a number of blocks and I adapted the templates to strip piecing. Cutting the templates will be the harder part. Stitching will be easier, just make your stitches close together and tie at least a triple knot at each end of each piece. I made a Grandmother's Flower Garden (GFG) all pieced by hand (my avatar). I did not do English Paper Piecing on it either (EPP). This was a king size quilt too. I cut hundreds of pieces for this one and loved every minute of making it . Best of luck to you.

joe'smom

If you are a book learner, I highly recommend Jinny Beyer's book, 'Quilt Making by Hand.' It has everything you need to know. People who have been in a class with Jinny Beyer say it's incredible how fast she can hand piece.