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Quote:

Originally Posted by Prism99 (Post 7738157)

I hand quilt with the rocking motion. One thing I learned early on is that it is important that the quilt NOT be drum tight in the hoop. You want to be able to move it about a fist-size up or down in the middle. This slackness allows you to manipulate the fabric, not just the needle. The second thing that really helped me was finding the right thimble. For me, the thimble MUST have a pronounced raised ridge around the top to hold the needle while I am rocking. If you look closely, most thimbles are made for hand sewing, and they have a rounded top. The rounded top works fine for hand sewing, but it lets the needle slip when you are quilting. Also, most sewing thimbles have pretty shallow dimples. It helps to have a thimble with deep dimples, both on the sides and inside the ridged top. Those deep dimples hold the needle better. I will attach some photos that show the type of thimble that work for my rocking stitch. The second website also lists the brands of each thimble:
http://sentimentalstitches.net/instr...hand-quilting/
http://academyofquilting.com/class-s.../?classesID=50

The above doesn't work if you have long fingernails but if, like me, you are used to short nails it will be fine! It is also important that the thimble fit your finger. If a thimble is a little too big, you can place a small amount of children's clay inside to help it stay in place. Once you determine which finger works best for the thimble (with the shape of my hand, the middle finger works best for me), you still might want to get two sizes of the same thimble since fingers can swell a little in heat.

I will say that one of the best award winning quilters in my old city owned a quilt shop, and she quilted with the "stab" method. That is, she stabbed the needle down from the top, grabbed the needle underneath to pull the thread through, then sent the needle straight up with the underneath hand. She said she could never get the hang of rocking. I simply don't have that kind of dedication. My rocking stitches are not as perfect as her stab stitches, but I would not have the patience to make two hand motions for every single stitch!

not much of a hand quilter or sewer myself--hurts my hands--but Prism's advice is exactly like I was taught by some very good quilters.

Practice is all you can do to get better, but watching others is helpful too. I found that I like the ThimbleLady thimble best, and like someone else said I started w/the plastic one just to make sure. I am not great and I think I know how to do the rocking thing but my stitches aren't very small, so I just aim for consistent (and usually miss lol). I have only hand quilted one quilt, but it was pretty big so I got a lot of practice and the recipient was happy w/it even w/the uneven stitches.

Try not to aim for perfection and just enjoy the process.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitsie (Post 7738031)

I've never been able to do the "rocking" method but am very happy with my one-at-a-time stab stitch. Just make sure your needle goes straight up and straight down and enjoy!

I googled "hand quilting, stab stitch" and found many sites.

I put my quilt on a small table, anchor it with a hunk of stainless steel and do a "running stitch". I use tiny little needles and use the gentle pull against the metal to keep things smooth. It's the way I started in the 70's and it works for me.

I have never loaded a bunch of stitches on the needle with a rocking motion. What works best for me is to put the needle down through the sandwich, back up through the sandwich, and pull the thread through... one stitch at a time.

I wasted alot of time trying to load a bunch of stitches on the needle until a quilt teacher gave me permission to do one at a time... what a revelation!

I did take a class on this and it's simply a matter of practice, practice, practice. I was breaking the teachers needles. I'm much better at it now but have found I like to quilt on my lap, without a hoop and simply do one or two stitches at a time. You just have to work at it till you find your groove. Good luck.

Lots of great suggestions here. The easiest for me personally is hoopless hand quilting. This video is a little long but I'm sure can can fast forward to where she actually talks about the hand quilting part VS the how to quilt in general. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDcLMiR2SAo

I have never been able to rock and get 3 stitches on my needle. I don't use a hoop now and just enjoy the regular stitches I can do, they aren't large stitches, well, I guess they are compared to 12 stitches per inch. Enjoying the process is more important to me.

I can do the rocking motion but I'm slow and awkward and my stitches are not always consistent. I thought I'd love hand quilting....and I did. But I'd never get anything finished, at the rate I do it. So I abandoned it and machine quilt only now.

But I do love some kinds of repetitive handwork, such as crochet; I find it soothing. So maybe I should make a baby quilt or something small that I can hand quilt over time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Friday1961 (Post 7738818)

I hand quilt everything and finish about 3 bed-size quilts a year. How many do you think you need? Never could understand the rush.

Thank you for the great suggestions. Sleepy Hollow, I did watch that video using Aunt Becky. That looks like it would work slick. Prism you had some fantastic tips. You all did actually. I have bookmarked every site and video you posted.

I realized I do much better when I stitch towards myself. I can't quite get the right thumb to control the fabric on the needle but my left thumb does an pretty good job :). I am in no rush to get this baby quilt done. So, I am going to take it slow and just enjoy it. I love cross stitching and a lot of that is the stitch down then back up ( in a sense) so the motion for that would be quite easy to adjust to. I may try it on some scraps. I am afraid I won't have as much consistency as I do trying the rocking method. But, I just may give that a try. Just to compare the two ways.

I love how there are so many ways to get the same results. I think quilting as well as any craft has to be enjoyable and there are always many methods to achieving great results. When starting out, it is always practice practice practice. I must remember this. I tell this to everyone I have ever taught to crochet. I need to take my own advice with quilting.