Hand piecing question.
 

What is the average stitch per inch when hand piecing? Members who hand piece in my guild has about 8 stitches per inch. Their quilts seem to hold up just fine, many are decades old. Makes me wonder why use such a tiny stitch length on the sewing machine.

I thought it was 10 per inch. If you are talking about the top quilting classes I have been to with well known hand quilters have all said as long as the stitches are uniform , exactly the same size, that is more important. Not though big long stitches.
Hope this helps

I thought she was asking about hand piecing, not hand quilting? When I do hand piecing, I have a straight row of stitches, no spaces between my stitches, so as long as they are uniform I don't care How many there are to an inch, as long as they are not real long.

This has always been my question.

Wow! You mean you are doing a back stitch when hand piecing? The usual method is to simply do running stitches with a back stitch maybe once every 3 or 4 inches to secure.

I have seen Jinny Beyer on a video showing how she hand pieces, and I would say 8 stitches per inch is probably what she does (it's been quite a few years since I borrowed that video from the library). She does a very fast running stitch with a backstitch every 3 or 4 inches (and a back stitch at beginning and end).

For machine piecing, I use the default setting on my Bernina. I just measured, and that is about 13 stitches per inch. I think it needs to be smaller than hand piecing because it unravels at the edges (because the edges are not secured at the ends the way you would with hand piecing). Just my thought.....