How is hand quilting different from a small running stitch? Don't want to get used to doing this and then have to re-learn. I've been holding the needle in my right hand and catching the backing and coming up again, trying to keep the stitches even. Where does using a thimble come in?

Also, remembering pictures of quilting bees, the ladies seem to keep their other hand under the quilt - is that because the quilt is on a frame?

This is so much fun, I don't want to be doing it wrong.

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Basically it is a small running stitch, but you want them even. It's been a while since I've hand quilted, but you would need the thimble to help push the needle through while doing 5-10 running stitches at a time. And I keep my hand under the hoop to be sure that I was catching all the material. With practice your top and bottom stitches would be very close in size. But the bottom line, is if you like it, it's ok. I look back at some of the quilting I did when I first learned. I had tiny little stitches, they looked great. I can't do that now, it would kill my hand. But hand stitching is beautiful.

There are some neat hand-quilting videos on YouTube.

Jory

Type hand quilting in the search on this site, there are several links.

As already mentioned there a lots of information about hand quilting, thimbles etc. here on the board and you also find little videos on Youtube.

IMHO you can't do something wrong. The result is what counts. Hand quilting is like hand writing - every quilter has to find her/his own way and there are many different ways to reach the goal. Just try it and find out what works best for you!

BTW - I don't use a thimble at all and my fingers are not sore.

I bought a book recently called Flawless Hand Quilting. It's very good and covers most everything you might want to know, including thimbles. One thing that was interesting is that they suggest you might want to use different types of thimbles for different types of stitching.