I have used a hoop in the past, but found it difficult and back breaking. Wish I could comfortably use a thimble but never have adapted to it. I just baste like crazy and start in the middle and work out, checking often so that nothing is bunching up in the back. So I keep sewing until my fingertips cry for mercy. Amazing the callouses one can build up after a queen size quilt :mrgreen: I also use a tiny footstool thingy that Keepsake Quilting catalogs offer. Prevents a lot of stiffness in the lower spine.

I'm a hand quilter who only does machine quilting when I *have* to, ie, the quilt has to get done quickly, or it is a child's quilt or a utility quilt.

Hand quilting is my "therapy" that keeps my mind sane! :)

I love hand quilting. I save it for TV time when I can't sit still but want to be with hubby. I've done one full size bed quilt (large twin), a few small wall quilts, and am working on a large lap quilt at the moment done in civil war colours. I decided to hand quilt it to make it look more antiquey. I find it very therapeutic and relaxing. Just don't do it if you have a deadline for the quilt (ie for a quilt show).

www.daysquilter.blogspot.com

Yes, I hand-quilt and hand-piece because that was the way I learned over 50 years ago, and it's a peaceful thing to do. I know not many younger people appreciate the time and effort that goes into one of these, but I get personal satisfaction out of it, regardless if I know that it may end up in someone's yard sale next year. The hands are not what they used to be, but as long as I can continue to quilt, I will!

For me it's a form of therapy...a much needed stress and tension release when I was working..now that I'm retired it's just for my own pleasure.

Hand quilting is all that I do. My stiches are not perfect, but I have a special person in mind for every quilt I make. So just to know that my hands have made all the stiches makes it even more special(in my opinion).

I am a hand quilter. Right now I am working on a quilt top that my Grandmother hand pieced. She gave the top to my youngest son as a wedding present. I also have one started that she hand pieced that will go to my oldest son and his wife.

Don't think I truly enjoyed quilting until I knew that my very best was good enough and for the most part, who knows but you where the "boo-boos" are. If someone's judging what doesn't quite match, or if my hand stitches are too big, obviously I've picked the wrong recipient of my gift :lol:

I'm a hand quilter! It's my first love. I usually call my hand quilts my "waiting quilts," 'cause I take 'em with me every where I have to wait. Like at the Dr.s office, when I take my DMIL to the beauty shop, or any where else that I have to wait. I have way too many quilts to hand quilt 'em all. I usually SID but am learning to FMQ.

It's my favorite part of the process, especially in the winter. I always think about Grandma when I'm hand-quilting. I was one of those tots who sat underneath the quilting frame watching the needle come through the backing and go back up again. I'd say hand-quilting is in my blood.

I love handquilting and belong to a group which meets twice a week to quilt one another's projects. We also laugh a lot and solve a lot of world problems while we quilt. These ladies are like an extended family.

I think hand quilting is therapeutic for me.

I agree! This is the very reason I take it with me to "wait." I don't wait very well & it relieves the stress. Especially if I'm waiting at the hospital. (It seems like there's someone from my family at the hospital every 3-6 months & waiting rooms are stressful!)
PS I also take 'em on road trips.

do you hand quilters cut with sizzors and use template
I have not done much quilting crochet but bought a singer featherweigh 221 and love it but now I think i had rather piece and quilt by hand as i like to do that do not use rotary cutter bought one but just do not like guess you can say I am from the old school be 81 in February is there a place here just for hand quilters if so someone tell me how to find it

Making my own cardboard templates and cutting out with scissors is the way I was taught close to 30 years ago by a third generation southern lady quilter. My first three quilts, every stitch was done by hand. Seems like my matching was much more accurate then and I wasn't getting so aggravated by sewing machines in general.

I have hand quilted three king size quilts and really enjoy doing them.

Hand quilter also, just love it !!
can't hand quilt fast enough, now with a new grandson,
I manage to care for him, and quilt while he naps !!!

I've never hand quilted yet and am also hesitant because of the time. Plus, I think it would make the fibro in my hands rear it's ugly head. I get my hand stitching fix when I work with the binding.

Absolutely LOVE to handquilt, but preferably on a quilt without a lot of piecing because of the difficulty of quilting over seams. I do quilt on my treadle sometimes, but usually only something I know will be drug around on the floor, like my son's bed quilt. I really look at hand quilting as 'me time' and love to do it at the end of the day while sitting on the couch in front of the TV with my family. Handquilting is my preference, and it's portable!

when I handquilt a scrappy quilt, I remember where and when I got some of my fabrics -- I go on holiday trips and visits with quilters, etc.

It adds a lot to my hours. I also watch TV sports -- right now I am watching the NE Patriots
Mim

I only do handquilting except for the charity quilts that require machine quilting. I've decided I'm a very tactile person. I have done some sort of hand work for most of my 56 years. I knit, crochet, needlepoint, cross stitch, embroider, etc. I find handquilting, and any handwork for that matter, very relaxing as it forces me to think, at least, a bit about what I'm working on and not what else is going on in the world.

I cut out templates on stiff paper, usually paper bags that come from the grocery store. I do use sissors mostly, but sometimes use a rotary cutter. I'm kind of a "make do" quilter and use whatever I have in the house that will help me cut a square, triangle, etc. for use in my quilting.

I love to sit and hand quilt, but my stitches aren't the prettiest you've ever seen. I try to use a thread color that blends in so it isn't so noticeable. I sure is relaxing. I use a hoop.

I would love to but my hands will not let me do it. But I do make all of my quilts on a treadle so that should count for something :mrgreen:

Billy

It sure does count for something. I learned on a treadle. Must keep your legs toned right up!

I found that my matching is more accurate when I piece by hand, also. I'm working on my first hand pieced and hopefully hand quilted quilt. I've made a few machine pieced and quilted and or tied quilts, but i am enjoying doing it by hand. I love how portable it is!

I was surprised when I travelled in the UK how many quilters hand sewed. Then I realised that instead of driving to work, they commuted on the bus, train or ferry -- and used that time to quilt. And so many also did gorgeous counted cross stitch. I can't even do a printed pattern -- I'm never satisfied with my uneven stitches
Mim

All I do is hand quilting. I am working on my fourth one now--a remake of one my grandmother made sometime before 1940.

I do but only for special pieces for family or friends. It is relaxing and has a different (I'm not saying better or worse)look than machine quilting.

I machine quilt on a DSM for charity quilts like QKF. I'm not great at it, but sometimes done is better than perfect.

What is old school quilting? By hand?

Quilting the three layers by hand.

I love the old school quilting, that's how I learned a veryh long time ago.

However, due to a neck and shoulder injury I am unable to do it all the time now; but I do every now and again. Even when I'm in pain I think its the best of quilting.

I do! I use plastic for my templates rather than cardboard but a template is a template. I use shears to do my cutting because I cannot use a rotary cutter. Anything that really begs to be rotary cut, like strips, is done by My Hero (also known as my husband).

My accuracy with shears is as good as a rotary cutter after many years of dog showing.

The only place I use a sewing machine is to do a stay stitch around the border of the quilt just before I put the binding on by hand.

I have fibromyalgia and I also have chronic tendonitis in my hands. Quilting doesn't bother my hands at all. Before I started, I looked around for instructions that were written with regard for ergonomics. I found them in Liuxin Newman's book, _Perfect Hand Quilting Without Pain_.

I think she's absolutely correct when she says that if quilting hurts, you're doing something wrong.

I use a hoop on a floor stand, the Grace Hoop Squared. The hoop is just to carry the weight of the quilt; I keep the quilt very, very loose in the hoop.

I've tried without a hoop but my arms got tired of the weight of the quilt too quickly.