In the last few days I read quite a bit about spoon quilting.
Could anyone tell me how you hold the spoon? Do you
have the inside of the spoon facing the needle or the bottom
of the spoon? I like hand quilting, but if I can speed it up ,
I certainly am interested. If someone can help me, it would
really be appreciated. We are finally getting summer here.
20+ celcius for tomorrow. We usually have had a lot more
warm weather by this time in Saskatchewan.

I heard about spoon quilting many many moons ago but have never tried it. I believe you use the back of the spoon. I'm going to watch this thread to learn how! Thanks for asking!

I don' tknow if your'e talking about using the spoon in basting a quilt. That's the way I learned it. The way it works is to hold your spoon down in the area that your needle is going to be coming from the back to the top of the quilt. It basically avoids the needle getting caught in the quilt on it's way up. You can easily grab the threaded needle easier when it's on the 'bowl' of the spoon. Hope this helps. It's been a while since I basted that way. PS- I use a plastic spoon since it will scratch up your spoons. I may have to attach a picture but not sure if you meant basting or quilting.

I was taught to push the edge/tip of the spoon up from the back. This makes a bit of a hump. Push the needle straight down into the hump and then across the hump to just catch the fabrics in a tiny stitch. This is how I use it. I put my left thumb into the bowl of the spoon and under the quilt.

Thanks Gwyn! When I tried it years ago I couldn't get it to work--now I know why--I was using the wrong finger! :) Going to try this out!

I handquilt so this is a great tip. I am going to find a tutorial to watching too. I don't even use a thimble. I wear cloth bandaids. And I own a ton of thimbles, metal, leather, etc. Just can't get comfortable with them. Since I learned without using them, it's hard to convert.

I watched a video with this method, and if I remember correctly, you used it as Gynn describes.
I believe it is used similar to the Aunt Becky device that was mentioned on the board earlier.

As with the Aunt Becky the quilt is rather loose in the hoop.

I am just a beginner, but hooked on hand quilting none the less, I read all the theory first before starting out and tried thimbles and such and the spoon although I had no picture of how I should hold the spoon, I did read some where that I should stitch over the back part of the spoon. I did try it (dessert spoon) and in principal it worked but it felt too awkward and not comfortable at all. I have ended up with my own style of hand quilting which is, 'bare hands'! I use my very strong thumb nail to push through the needle and nothing on the fingers underneath. I did prick my fingers a few times but very soon learned how to feel for the needle and guide it back up through the layers without a thimble. I much prefer to feel what I am doing, even though I have tried a couple of times more with a thimble. I do not take too many stitches upon my needle at one time. I work with my fabric lose in the hoop.

Gal

I never got the hang of a thimble either. I handquilt with a pair of needle nose pliers (mine, not husbands whose are really dirty :) ). After my Mother-in-law taught me how to hand quilt, I caught her sneaking a pair of needle nose piers into the church quilting bee. I got a good giggle from that since I got so many strange looks.

I use the pliers to push the needle through when I need it using the groove between the jaws. If the needle needs a good tug (I never get a good grip for some reason) I just clamp them down and pull. Maybe a little unorthodox but works great.

I cut off the fingers of latex surgical gloves and put these on my fingers to pull the needle through the fabric.

Sorry - the only thing I know about spoon quilting is dipping the spoon in a bowl of ice cream while I am reading a quilting magazine..............

LOL!!! That sounds like the best thing!
I do hand quilt, but haven't tried the spoon method before. I guess I need to get with it!

I have been quilting for about 15 years and also hand quilt pushing the needle through with my fingernail. I use thumb and index nails. Once I get my needle started with about 3 stitches I sometimes slip a thimble on then but I prefer to quilt without. I end up eventually drilling a hole in my fingernail from it so I try to use the thimble so I don't destroy my nails and have to wait until they grow out again in order to quilt some more. I go into serious withdrawls without my handwork at TV time :lol:

If I am quilting straight lines I can take up to 8 stitches on a needle but curves I only take as many stitches as I can before I have to turn a corner, which means sometimes only 1 or 2 stiches. I also have nothing on my underneath finger but have formed a callous on it from the constant scraping of the needle on the pad of my finger. To make the hump like is done with spoon or aunt becky tool I again use my fingernail. But usually I don't need a hump. I get my stitch by rocking the needle and kind of pinching the fabric with my top hand. I posted this before but here is a picture of my current hand quilting project.

I found this blog on spoon quilting: http://quiltsalott.blogspot.com/2009...-quilting.html

Love your quilting, but my nails wouldn't handle it.

Thankyou so much for the blog. This quilting board is so helpful.

felinefanatic. wonderful stitching. Love the dragon. Thank you no1Jan for the spoon info. I will keep following this thread to learn more.

Exactly what I was thinking, it is used in the same manner that the Aunt Becky is just held differently.

Spoons are cheap to come by and if you cut the tip of it off and sanded it down smooth you could make the device that is used in the blog really cheap!

But then again who am I to talk, I don't hand quilt YET!!! I hope to start my first hand quilting project this winter!

I haven't spoon quilted. But I have been useing something similar. It is called a under-thimble. And I''m still practicing. Just not quite sure if I really like it or not. But I'm learning to love hand quilting.Only been doing it since January of this year.

I started spoon quilting about a year ago, to save my under finger. I had tried Aunt becky but it didn't work for me. I didn't want to spend more money on something that, again wouldn't work so I made my own. I took an old spoon and had my DH cut part of the handle off, then I put one of those rubber pencil grips over what was left of the spoon handle. It worked!! I like using it. I still use my finger sometimes, certain positions just work better that way. Once I figured out that I could use the spoon, I decided to buy the T J's quilting spoon (supposedly it is coated with something that won't scratch with alot of use, and it is flat on top, unlike a spoon, so I thought it would work better). I was wrong, I like my spoon better. It might be the difference in the angle at the neck of the spoon. My spoon has gotten scratched and it feels like the needle gets caught in the scratches, so I will be looking for more old spoons to cut off.

Not only does it work great, but you can make rings from the cut off handles. Young girls really like these spoon rings.

thanks for the link

Our ancestors were geniuses. I can't wait to try this.

I forgot to tell you about the under thimble. It is a little round circle that you stick to the end of your finger that goes under your quilt and you use it like a spoon. Mine came with double-sided tape that your put on the thimble and your finger. I got it at a fabric store that we have here.

Sounds GOOD to me lol

Cool. Sounds easier than using the little piece from a soda can that I superglued to my finger (necessity is the mother of invention). I haven't handquilting in a long time. I can do it but I'm picky so I'm SLOW.

Great idea! Never would have thought of that! :thumbup:

Thanks for the info. I've just begun my hand quilting. Struggled first my first one and am now piecing a queen size for our bed. Have considered Aunt Becky's but it seems like it would be awkward to hold for a long period of time. The TJ looks like it would be more user friendly. Any idea if it can be bought other than on line? Would like to see it "in person"
before buying it. It's going to be several months before I'll be ready for the hand quilting stage.

I don't quilt with a hoop so I didn't have enough hands to hold the spoon, needle, and quilt....

Just a hint; I have cut off the tips of an old pair of rubber cleaning gloves and use them on certain fingers; great for pushing and pulling the needle. The plus side is the needle does not go through the rubber. Hope this helps you.

Any thing to keep from getting poked. Thanks will give that a try too.

I hand quilt, and I've always used a thimble on both the top (needle-pushing) finger and one underneath to glance the needle off of. I got tired of hearing the "click" of the needle off of the underside thimble, as well as not being able to make stitches as small as I would like. I've recently been quilting without a thimble on the underside, which has resulted in smaller stitches, but find I have to rest from quilting for a day or two at intervals to let my poor finger recover. I'm delighted to hear about this method! If anyone sees a link for a video so we can see this in action, I hope you'll post it! Thanks for sharing a great idea!

I hand quilt with a spoon in my hand under the quilt and my thumb in the bowl of the spoon. I use a hemostat to grab the needle and pull it through the fabric. I can load more stitches on the needle than if I had to grab it with my finger and thumb.

Does this save your finger from being stuck a thousand times by the needle? If so I am definitely going to try it.
LOL

Yes, that is the reason I use the spoon. I use a good quality plastic spoon (I get them at the Party Store) instead of silver or stainless because I don't like the way the metal feels if my hands perspire and the plastic doesn't dull my needle. I wear out a lot of plastic spoons but thats OK. they are probably cheaper than needles.

I am also looking for both and can't find them in any retailers. If you find it can you post where you found it? Thanks - Harry

I've found hemostats in the fishing departments of sporting good stores. You can also find them at vet supply places and the pharmacy (the vet supply places are always cheaper! The closest place to me is Tractor Supply which I would never have thought to look in if I hadn't been looking for something else).

That sounds like Aunt Betty ... only with a spoon :)

Hmm, so you cut the handles off the spoon? I am trying to visualize it all! I have not hand quilted, but would like to do a small piece .

I used this method many moons ago but I think I remember the thumb going into the inside of the spoon.