Hand Quilting With Large Stitches
 

I love all of the Japanese style quilts with the large stitch quilting. I'd also like to see that technique used in other style of quilts too. EG: colorful kids' quilts, artsy quilts, etc. Anyone ever done this? What materials, thread, tools do you use?

~ Cindy

Here's something from "the google" to get you started

large stitch quilting

large stitch hand quilting

Might be some repeats on these links. Will await our members' responses with you.

Google sashiko and you'll find lots of information.

I have taken a look a Sashiko, but I'm thinking of using some of those techniques in another context.
~ Cindy

I have recently noticed this and am thinking about doing some of it on a child's quilt. I think I will use a contrasting thread and maybe double it rather than just single thread I use when I hand quilt.

I think it's called 'big stitch' or 'utility quilting'. If you search either one of those terms here or on google, there are lots of examples.

It reminds me of my first quilting projects as a kid. But I like the "new" look. With my hands going to sleep often this might be an answer to use on a few UFO that I keep passing up. My 3 quilter Gma's would have a fit if they could see this. LOL

I've been thinking about doing this, too, but I'm always afraid I'll start and get tired of it and then the project will never get finished...

I think large stitch quilting would look great on a primitive type quilt. I am going to make a quilt in darker country colors with primitive applique on it and I think I will try the big stitch quilting on it using thicker thread. Thanks for the idea! :thumbup:

I agree...me too. Maybe we should start with potholders...LOL.
~ C

I have done a queen sized D9P and quilted it with big-stitch quilting. I am machine quilting a Craftsy BOM from 2012 and am going to do big stitch in the sashing and the border. Been doing it some time at a volunteer quilters group and it really can be used anywhere all over or just where you want it. Have a friend who does beautiful work with it.

Oooohhh...that would look nice. What kind of thread? Do you use big ole upholstery needles?

I was thinking I would use 12wt perle cotton, mainly because I have a whole bunch of it I bought on sale at a quilt show I went to. But maybe that will be too thick - I will have to experiment and see how it looks. I use a size 8 embroidery needle when I use the perle cotton for redwork but that size would probably be too big to quilt with. I guess it will be trial and error. ha ha

Hi. I did big stitch quilting using perle thread recently on a child's quilt and I thought it looked quite effective. You can see the front and back here.

Wow! I love that Emmaj1045! Your quilting looks great and it really adds a wonderful appearance to the quilt. You have inspired me!

Ooooh, how cute. The large quilting stitches really look great.

I've been doing it without knowing it was a technique! Really like the look of it. Easy to do and makes the quilt go fast. Mixes well with machine quilting, too, such as SID.

Here's a link to some sashiko thread.
http://www.shiboridragon.com/Sashiko-Thread.htm
The site's description compares it to #8 pearl cotton.
I'll be watching with interest. It's a similar subject to my wanting to know about quilting with larger thread sizes.
Rodney

I love this technique. I think it looks so cool. And if I hand quilted I would have to do this because my hands don't work well enough to make tiny stitches. It's like a pass for us bad hand quilters. LOL.

Same here!

i used perle cotton and my problems were 2:

1. the needles were a pain in the butt. to get an eye big enough, i had to go with a longer needle. since i finished that project, i have been altered to the availability of shorter, sharp needles (you need sharp points for quilting) but i wasn't able to find them locally at the time. that would have helped significantly. hand quilting with a longer needle is not ideal.

2. my "body memory" or whatever kicked in and it was difficult for me to maintain a larger stitch length. this is a practice issue (as in - practice would have helped a lot!) but the end result was my perle cotton quilting was pretty close to my thread hand quilting. this meant it wasn't any faster, and given the needle thing probably about as long in time as regular ole' handquilting.

it did however really stand out, where often handquilting fades a bit (which is disappointing sometimes for the hours spent you know?)

i will do it again. for sure. but with the above lessons in mind :)

aileen

Thank you so much for posting. I'm planning on doing some branches and leaves in big stitch on my next quilt to make it more artsy and this gives me a good idea how much I can expect contrasting stitches to stand out. There's a good amount of space between your motifs too! What batting did you use?

I have used "big stitch" quilting a number of times with great results. I always use pearl cotton

There is a very good Youtube video on big stitch quilting. She uses #12 perle cotton and a #20 or 22 chenille needle. It has a large eye but is shorter. I have also heard that embroidery floss or #10 crochet cotton can be used. I'm looking forward to trying it myself.

Love this conversation. I think I am going to have to give this a try on my next kid's quilt. I really like the look of the quilt posted by Emmaj above. Such a unique idea carried from one context to another.

emma your quilt is very pretty great stitching shows beautiful on front and back

I have done a few quilts this way. I used #10 crochet thread or embroidery floss. both work well. just take diffient tools. sharped pointed yarn needles, Bees waxs for the thread, sometimes a needle threader can be helpful.

I do hand quilt & like big stitching. I'm going to hand quilt a civil war quilt & I'm going to do big stitch with perle thread

I'm wondering if I can use embroidery thread in a contrasting color.

~ Cindy

Check out this web site: http://www.JoQuilter.com
She specializes in Big Stitch quilting. Our guild had her come and do a presentation and a workshop of the big stitch. She uses #12 thread and #5 between needles. She has a large variety of colors of thread. I took a small group of friends to her shop and she is more than willing to give a demonstration on the technique. She always has an ongoing project to work on and several examples of her work. If you live in the area of Bellevue, IA, you should stop in for a visit.

I have been considering this technique for awhile but have not tried it. This may give me the push since I really like the look of it and do enjoy hand quilting.

hand quilting with large stitches
 

Hi Cindy, yes indeed , sometimes big stitches just add to the overall design.I use thicker thread or floss. There are no rules when it comes to your artistic work --- and NOOO police either. Love Letty.

But it would be easy to take out. Right?

I was concerned about little fingers and toes but this is wonderful!

Oh my gosh, I am so glad to see this post. I hand quilted my GS's "Out in the universe"quilt with all different sizes of circles to mimic the planets. It was to big to do on my machine and sending it out was not an option, but I am not a pretty stitches hand quilter. Tried many times, can't do it. So the stitches were about 4 to an inch and as even as I could manage. It looks pretty good and I know he will love it but I had this sneaky little guilt feeling that they weren't 8 or 12 to the inch. Hooray for big stitch quilting. Now I can feel better about picking up that needle and playing some more. You guys are the best.

I used Perle Cotton and ran my thread through beeswax to aid with the threading of my needle.

Sashiko stitches use a thicker thread, so go for it. Enjoy the exercise in learning a new skill.

I have done some sashiko stitching and it is very precise and not necessarily large stitches. I really love the big stitches in certain applications and consider it as important to learn as small, tiny stitching. I am wondering how if I could use it in a tee shirt quilt. mmmm.

This is the solution to my problem. I need to finish a Mickey Mouse quilt for my DGS and don't have time to send it out to my LA and can't FMQ. I can hand quilt though and the big stitch will look really cute on this one. Thanks to all of you for bringing the idea to the forefront!

I did a lesson in "Big Stitch Quilting" and we all loved it, it was easy and so nice to be able to do something by hand. The effects were great and the only "rule" was to maintain stitch size, didn't matter what size as long as they were even. As a matter of interest we used Perle cotton from http://www.threadart.com/c-283-pearl-cotton-thread.aspx beautiful quality.