How long is a piece of string? There are so many variables to this question, my last machine pieced and hand quilted queen size was in a country nine patch style. It took eight weeks to hand quilt, working on it a little or a lot every day. I used masking tape to get my straight lines and I used an 18 inch hoop.

Gal

I'm thinking.....thinking.....but it's the work stuff that keeps getting in the way, though.

Janet

A lot depends on the amount of quilting you plan on doing. I just finished hand quilting a 78 x 90 applique quilt and it took me approx 5 mos working pretty steadily. Howver, I quilted undulating feathers on 4" sashes and Amish feather border (feather and cable) on an 8" border. I must say I was glad to put the last stitch in that one.LOL

Another quick hand quilting question: those of you who use hoops-do you loosen them when you get done each day or do you keep them tight? And how tight? I have been lap quilting and want to use my floor stand hoop, but am not sure how loose to keep the quilt. Seems like it would have to be pretty loose to be able to swing the needle down. Any suggestions?

I never loosened the hoop at the end of the day, unless I knew I was moving to another spot the next time I sat down.

As for how tight - think of how the quilt would look if your cat sat in it. That should do nicely! If you're bending needles, it's too tight, if you can't control your stitches, it's too loose.

Janet

On one king quilt I kept track of time. I outlined each log of 56 log cabin blocks, at 8 hours per block. If I had stitched in the ditch, the time would have been about half, but that would still have been 200 hours!
The quilt on my bed this month was quilted in front of CNN during Desert Storm. Don't remember how many days, but it got done!
I don't keep track of the time any more (and don't hand quilt everything.)

I loosen my hoop off after every quilting session so as not to stretch the fabric. I also loosen my fabric in the hoop when beginning quilting by placing my hand in the centre and pushing down slightly.

Gal

I never kept track when hand quilting, I did a Queen for my daughter and several baby quilts by hand, but really prefer to quilt by machine. I am learning free motion (by that I mean practicing) and enjoying every minute of it

Thanks, Janet and Gal. I am looking forward to trying it with my floor hoop!

I couldn't say accept that it takes a long time.