Hey,

I have callas on both my first and second fingers of my left hand. I also quilt with both hands and wear a short black leather thimble on my left thumb I use it to push the needle when I am quilting with my left hand.

My natural nails are about the length shown in the picture and I don't think about them one way or another.

Wow, I wish my nails looked as nice as yours do! Over the last year or so mine have gotten little ridges, thin and splitting all the time. When they do grow out a bit I have to trim them all the way back cuz they have 'snags' all over them.

I know some professional quilters who have extraordinarily long nails, I don't know how they do it, LOL.

warm quilt hugs, sue

My nails are short. Besides quilting I garden and paint so nails just get in the way.

I always keep mine filed to the tip of my finger. Any longer, and I forget they are long and end up breaking them.

Mine are generally a little longer but had to cut them today in fact. I broke one and didn't want to break another.

I feel naked with short nails!

mine are about the same length as yours. well, not 'mine' mine. but i paid for them, so they're mine. they don't get in my way at all. when i garden, i remember to wear gloves. i keep the gloves in the tool bucket. when they get much longer, i immediately cut them back to that same length. i also keep them polished, sometimes with clear, to give them extra strength.

Mine are about the same length as yours. I use the open type thimble when I hand quilt so that the nail can poke out. I don't find that they cause any problem one way or the other.

I found if my nails are longer, I rake them across a bar of soap before I go garden. That way the soap is lodged under them instead of dirt. I just hate gloves..I'm trying to train myself to wear the latex gloves to garden in (we had boxes of them left from when DH needed me to nurse him back to health)...so I had plenty. They make my hands sweat tho'

Hey I use my natural nails doing that, thumb nail is extra hard. Eventually I poke a hole in the nail and have to clip it short.

My natural nails are a wee bit longer than those in the photos and they work great for sewing and even finger pressing seams, they are very hard. They work for a stylus too for marking a line on fabric. Just another tool, and free too.