I need a little advice. I am in a quilting group where we are hand quilting a large quilt together. The fabric is good quality and the batting warm and natural. In all, a beautifully made quilt. My problem is that I am having a hard time with the needle. It doesn't necessarily stick in the fabric layers, it is just very difficult to work the needle. Several other women are having the same problem. We have changed needles, to no avail.

Any suggestions?

DO you suppose it is the batting choice? I cant hand quilt with Warm and Natural... :-/

Warm and Natural isn't hand quilting friendly. Try Quilter's Dream Request or Select next time.

I think the batting choice may have a lot to do with it.

Try loosening the tension on the quilt, and maybe a different size and brand needle.


Janet

I suspect the pronlem is the warm and natural batting.

a #10 sharp maybe easier---(assuming you've been using betweens- the sharps are a little longer) warm & natural is really not meant to be hand quilted (or any batting with scrim- the scrim helps keep them together for the tugging/turning/rolling during machine quilting-
hobbs heirloom or quilters dream is a better choice- but assuming that is too late you will have to experiment with needles- (and thimbles) to find the right combination.
I use sharps or milners normally- i like the longer shaft-
and #12 milners may even be a better choice for you---longer and finer needle- but they will bend sooner doing (heavy sewing) with them. i like the John James milners- but there are lots of different brands to choose from.

I also belong to a weekly hand quilting group and have found that Hobbs 80/20 works better than Warm and Natural.

I use #11 Roxanne needles.

mltquilt

One other thing - quilting on the bias is usually easier than quilting on the straight of grain.

Janet

Too bad the choice was Warm & Natural for hand quilting. I learned the hard way on a Q size quilt, the batting is so tough & dense it was very hard to penetrate. I made it but never again.

I hand quilt with warm & natural all the time. Granted, might not be the easiest batting to work with but it's doable. I use Roxanne between needles, either #11 or #12 and don't have issues getting through the sandwich. I would loosen the tension on the frame and see if that helps.