Help with Hand Quilting Project, Please
 

I am trying to hand quilt a small project. I am new to hand quilting. I do quite well (I am told) at embroidery. My stitches (most times) are even and neat.


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When I try to hand quilt this wall hanging, I can only do one stitch at a time and the stitches on the backing side of the piece are crooked even though they appear straight on top. Don't know how the picture will turn out.

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I am using a hoop and the piece is sandwiched securely. Any suggestions?

You say the hoop is sandwiched securely, but maybe it's too secure. You don't want it drum tight. There has to be some give in order to do the rocking motion to get more than one stitch. Having it too tight would also give you the crooked stitches on the back.

For some reason can not open/ see your attachments, but you might have your ( sandwich) held too taut in your hoop. Quilting is not like embroidery . Embroidery you have your fabric held drum tight, quilting you have it held wrinkle free but with slack. Some people will place their sandwich in the hoop then place their fist in the center & push down to give it the right amount of slack.

Thank you so much for the wonderful advice. The project I am doing is a postage stamp triple Irish Chain and I had high hopes for it.

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Perhaps you can see by this picture and let me know if you think the piece is hooped too taut. Thanks for the information.

I don't get acceptable stitches with stab stitching, either. I suggest you learn to do the rocking stitch on a practice piece before you try quilting this lovely quilt. Hand quilting isn't something (for most people) that you can just pick up and start doing without a learning period.

I hand quilt with the Thimblelady folding method, which I learned from her book 'Perfect Hand Quilting without Pain.' It is similar to the traditional rocking stitch, but involves less finger tension and wrist movement, so isn't stressful on the hands. If you google 'Thimblelady', you will find her website. I bought the book used on Amazon, and ordered the Thimblelady plastic thimble, which was not expensive, from the website. I think the best book on the traditional rocking stitch is Roxanne McElroy's 'That Perfect Stitch.'

I learned to hand quilt on a full-sized practice quilt, and it took me the entire quilt to get the hang of it.

That looks good, but it's hard to tell by a picture. Have you looked at videos of handquilting to see how the needle should be rocked up and down? If you can't do that rocking motion, it's too tight. Be sure there are not wrinkles on the back or front with in the hoop, but it can still be loose. Also, don't worry about the length of your stitches, the shorter stitch will come in time. It's more important to get consistent stitch length and spacing. Also, what type of thimble are you using? I could only every use a leather one without a metal dot.

The picture is too dark to tell anything. I tried brightening it up in a photo editor, but it just came out grainy. The piecing is quite lovely; I can see why you'd want to hand quilt this.

I am also a newbie to hand quilting. I literally have probably 5 hours under my belt. A few things I've learned (and I'll leave the rest to the experts here)...

- be sure you're using a quilting hoop, not an embroidery hoop
- you need more give in the quilt while it's in the hoop vs. embroidery. With embroidery, you want it taught. With quilting, you need some give to be able to work the stitches. In fact, with certain methods of quilting like fabric folding or Aunt Becky, you need 4-5" of give in the quilt. I know that's at least twice as much as for rocking stitch, but I never took classes on the rocking stitch -- just tried to figure it out from YouTube and that was an epic fail. With the stab stitch method (1 stitch at a time, straight down, then straight up), you have the quilt the tightest. In that case, you want just a tiny bit of give.
- With stab stitching (your method), you want to be sure to go straight down & straight up. It can help to mark your design before you get started so you have something to follow. By holding your needle in the tripod position (using thumb & whichever 2 of the next 3 don't have a thimble on them), you will be able to get the needle to move straight through the fabric, rather than going through at an angle and forming crooked stitches.

Good luck with this! It does get to be more fun the more you practice, but it is a whole new skill. I've been doing hand embroidery for nearly 20 years (cross stitch, pillow cases, whatever I could find). I've done hand beading & started needleturn applique about 15 months ago. I easily learned needleturn & was at 1/10" stitches by the end of my first day & now aim for those 1/16" stitches that are so beautiful. The difference is that with other hand needlework, the back just needs to be "neat", not identical to the front. So hand quilting really is a more difficult skill -- maybe grab a practice piece to work on for a bit. Just grab a ruler or template & mark any design to practice on until you get the hang of things & and can move on to your beautiful Triple Irish Chain quilt.

I know it took you a long time to write this piece and I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to "advise" me. It is appreciated more than you know. GOD Bless

You try watching "metal to metal" quilting( or something like that) on YouTube. I would also suggest making a smaller practice sandwich to get the feel and rhythm of the quilting before working on a big quilt. I find it helpful when showing someone how to hand quilt to remind them not to worry about stitch size at first. Just try making sure the stitches go through all three layers. then think about making the stitches a consistent length. Finally work on making stitches smaller. Using a high loft or polyester batting can make first time quilting difficult. A thinner cotton or wool batting is probably easier to hand quilt through. Most importantly, keep at it. You'll be amazed at how your stitches improve after some practice!

I can do fairly even stitches. I still can't get tiny even stitches. I have decided to be content with fairly even stitches that are smaller than toe grabbers.