I am handquilting my first queen-sized quilt and the pattern my daughter picked is a swirly "snail-shell"-looking one (swirl around around around in, and around around around out). I'm wondering if there's a technique to handling the bulk of the quilt to make it easier to quilt. Typically, I quilt away from myself & keep turning (I use a laptop hoop). Should I be trying to do 1/2 away from me and 1/2 towards me? This is a lot of quilting to be swooshing around.

Thanks for any suggestions or tips to making wresting this alligator a bit easier. :)

I use a standing frame so I always try to quilt towards myself. That doesn't always work especially with circles.

I have never found a way to quilt circles quickly. I can usually manage to load about 5 stitches on my needle before pulling it through. Any more and I can't get a smooth circle. I am able to quilt towards myself using my peter pointer (with a thimble on) and my thumb. I am also able to quilt away from myself using the same two appendages but having the thimble on my thumb and using it to load the needle. Try it, you may find you like it to quilt away from yourself. It doesn't save all the flipping but I can quilt longer before turning.

I'm a Peter Pointer quilter and thumb-nail quilter, too. I'm thinking my goal to finish this quilt shouldn't be Christmas but Easter?? VBG

Ummm...what the heck is a Peter Pointer???!!! I googled it and the first two links were this one and one other from the board. No helps as to what it/they are!

Sounds....well....interesting!

Well, I'm assuming it's your pointy finger (I DO have small kids!). LOL

Nice try...don't think its correct though! LOL

I hand-quilted a good deal of my Pumpkin Patch quilt with a pumpkin seed stencil, aka continuous circles. Whenever I see that pattern now, my blood pressure goes up. Circles are the bane of the hand-quilter.

Good luck! I'm in the same position. Am hand-quilting a full-size with a meander pattern, lol. I did buy some of those clamp things that you're supposed to be able to roll up the sides of the quilt and hold in place, to make it more managable- less than spectacular success with those. Mostly I just quilt as far as I can go before I have to turn it, and just do a lot of wrestling! If there's a better way, I'd be happy to hear it. (I've used both a lap hoop, and a standing hoop. About equal amounts of wrestling, I think.)

Maybe a floor frame that turns & swivels would make it easier?? I thought feathers would be pretty hard, too, but nothing like this top-spinning pattern I'm doing now!