Thank you for all your help! I'll be looking for those needles, to be sure. I'm not ready to give up on something I've loved all my life, not until I have to do it. Until then, life is all about adaptation and modification. I have loved sewing for almost 50 years, quilting in my later years (when I could stop making all those clothes for kids and formal wear for weddings that I could sell for extra money). Quilting is something I find peaceful, creative and rewarding in ways that are just hard to describe. I want to quilt until I drop dead, like my great-grandmother did. She was the one who taught me to sew, and also left me several finished quilt tops for me to make into quilts when she died. What a blessing she was to me!

This Board really rocks!!!!

I use embroidery needles, for piecing, sewing my binding on, applique, and just about everything I do by hand, the only exception would be hand quilting and of course I use a between for that. I use a #7 or #8. There easy to thread because of the larger eye also.

I'm just getting serious about learning how to hand piece a quilt. I have Jinney Beyer's book on hand sewing and she uses a quilting between. Because of the way she holds her thread and fabric she is able to use such a small needle but I haven't gotten the hang of it, yet. She's FAST!

So instead I have been having good luck using a size 10 milliners needle by Richard Hemming & Son. It's got a nice length for holding onto, it's thin but yet strong enough for piecing and I think it would work for binding, too. It slips right through the fabric without any drag.

Write Colonial Needle Company in White Plains NY and tell them just what you have said here. Send an email and share their answer with the board. Write me if they don't respond. I know the folks down there. you can explain the problem better than I can.