I made a quilt sandwich and tried hand quilting. How hard can it be, right. First I drew some lines & circles, Tried burying the knot, that's over rated, so skip that. LOL. First tried stab stiching the lines. I'd never pass a sobrity test. Next the circles, this time I tried 3 stiches on needle, looked pretty good. Then I turned it over, only one stich was on the back. My miserable attempt at fmq now seems so much better. GRIN.

I totally agree with you, my mother hand quilts hours and hours a day and her stitches are tiny and perfect. My attempt at it was horrid. I think she ripped out everything I did, lol

I think you will do fine if you just continue to practice. It will take some time to get hand quilting down to an art.

i'm going to attempt to hand quilt my first quilt soon. it will take me about a month to complete the top i'm working on. i also heard it takes practice to hand quilt and if you keep at it you will get better. i wish you luck. and wish me luck on my adventure into hand quilting. i am in the process of researching everyones little tips on the board about this. everyone is so helpful.

Yip -- same experience that I had!!!! :thumbdown:

Ladies, it is so rewarding once you get the hang of it. Practice on a scrap sandwich first. A few tips that helped me in the beginning: use a hoop, and keep the quilt fairly loose in it. You will have to use your left hand (if your right handed) under the quilt under the area you are stitching so you can feel the needle go thru the layers and come back up. Use a thimble of some sort (I started out using electrical tape on my underneath finger!). It is more important to get your stitches more uniform than trying to get them tiny. I saw a friend's first hand-quilting where she only got 4 stitches to the inch, but it looked really good because they were all uniform in size, and she used a thread that showed well as part of the design. Poping the knot in the batting is important because you don't want the knot to show! At the end of each length of thread (don't use more than 18" or so each time), a small knot that also needs to be burried. Use a proper "hand" quilting thread that is coated and fairly firm. Just keep practicing-it is really worth it!

Well for got the hoop, I had just bought. I also bought 2 spools of real quilting thread & betweens. One out of 3 ain't bad. I used the correct needle. It is rather over whelming. I also bought a pre-printed pillow panel to make a sandwich with so I can pretend to be actually quilting as a plain muslim sand. is just depressing.

LOL thanks for the laugh. You might want to give it a try again. It is very relaxing.

loll
I just started quilting my first quilt. I agree! what a pain... getting the stitches uniform in size she says LOL well! that is another story. I undo some of them, but it seems to me that if I keep undoing more stitches so to make them all uniform is size, by the time I finish quilting it (if I ever finish in my lifetime and I am in my early 60...) I will have the impression that I quilted 3 quilts, with just one quilt to show

That being said, I am new to quilting and I REALLY want to hand quilt it. I know I can do it, and if it's not as I see it in my dream, it will be hand quilted by me anyway!
I wish you (and myself...) good luck
LOLL

everything Vanuatu Jill said is Right on. Practice makes perfect. When I first started I used a polyester batt which was much thinnner and easier to work with. I now use W&N batt. I also use Betweens size 10.