Yes, I hand quilt every quilt - first outlining the design so it stands out. Then when looking at the borders, and/or the rest of the areas around the design, I choose what I feel the person receiving the quilt is like...I put colors and quilting designs according to the person's personality. I know this may sound strange...but we are artists...one of a kind creations!

I am doing the happy dance knowing there are other hand quilters out there. :-)

I like my quilting to show too. And, I can't seem to be able to stay in the ditch. So, I usually echo or what I call shadow quilt about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the seam lines. Or, I will follow the pattern of the blocks. Hand quilting is very rewarding. It really doesn't matter how large your stitches are, as long as they are a consitant size. Have fun! Be sure to post when finished!

If and when you try this, let us know how it goes. I tried the P&S for machine quilting and didn't like it at all. I can't see using it for hand quilting because 1) it's another layer (2 actually) to go through and 2) it'd change the whole tactile experience of hand quilting. I could well be wrong, so please be sure to write about your experience trying this, please!

I have hand quilted some. I like outlining 1/4 inch away and I use cookie cutters for heart shapes, stars just whatever I have....stencils are outrageous!

I usually stitch around the squares -or-
cross ( as in "X") in the boxes -or-
a variance of both.
J J

Check out this site..they have reasonable prices on stencils, and a great variety!! Love the ones I ordered from them:
http://quiltingstencils.com/viewallblocks.aspx

I love to hand quilt too. I absolutely love the process and fall in love all over again when the quilt is done. I like to use cross-hatches, which is my hand-quilting version of FMQ stippling. It is somewhat dense and flattens out an area. My lines are usually about 1/2" apart. Actually, I don't know how far apart they are. I just use the lines of an old school ruler I have. I draw the lines based on the contour lines of the ruler. I finally just bought a real 1/4" ruler the other day that will make my lines much more mathematically correct. :-)

From another handquilter: As I see your quilt of 6 inch squares, if it were my quilt, I would quilt a small design in the lighter colored squares and also stitch in the ditch around these squares . I would crosshatch the rest of the top in the diagonal, maybe 1 in apart. My reasons for doing this: Pretty designs show up best on light colors, and, for me, diagonal quilting is quickest and easiest stitching. Just my ideas, lots of good ones here for you to chose from. Happy quilting!

Here are a couple of examples. The butterfly I got from a picture on line, printed it out, traced it onto some stencil material and then free handed the body and antennae. The hearts I just cut out of paper folded in half, like we use to do in elementary school. The little curly Q's that look like ocean waves came from a real stencil I bought at the Houston Quilt festival. For the lines on the blue fabric I used a triangle ruler and traced off the edges every inch or so.

On the fancy cut block with the sailing ships, I free handed to make it look like ocean waves. Then outline stitched the triangles and squares.

These are my first two quilts. I am now quilting on a third. It is fun to be creative, so enjoy.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]359373[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]359374[/ATTACH]