Still learning
 

I am still learning quilting techniques. Made a dog quilt for our old Chihuahua. The problem I had always had with the previous bindings were no issues on this. pretty excited about that.

Hubby has been working on his quilt as he has time. While he is using the sewing machine, I am thinking of practicing hand quilting on some left over batting and fabric from my previous adventures. That way I can do some quilting while he does.

I dabbled a bit the other day. My stitches are not consistent and I can not for the life of me get the rocking motion going with a thimble on my fingers. I have tried all of them. I am thinking I am truly going to have to pay someone to help me with this. Dreading it as that means lessons and a cab fare.

I do understand the concept and I am sure it is a bad attitude on my part ( impatience on learning the technique. if you understand the technique and can get the needle straight down then flat and working 3 stitches on needle I should be able to do it) Yeah, most likely my issue is myself. I am not going to give up just yet though. I also have to stop worrying about how many stitches per inch I am doing and just relax and work on consistency/ evenly spaced stitches.

I think it would be fun to do. Maybe not every quilt. But a baby size would be a great place to start. A lot of the you tube videos are not up close enough for me to get the full view. I would love to do the quilt top on the machine but the quilting by hand for at least 1 quilt in my lifetime.

How many hand quilter are here and do you have any beginner tips that you are willing to share? What was your biggest struggle when you started out and how did you over come it?

Don't feel too bad about not getting the rocking motion thing. I've also tried different times over the years, and still am not able to do it well. I keep going back to it from time to time. When I do hand-quilt, I use a sort of stabbing, up and down motion, as you might do for certain embroidery stitches. I work at keeping my stitches consistent, and that's it.

I do a lot of machine quilting, but sometimes it's nice to sit in a nice comfy chair and do some hand work.

I'm always looking at videos. I have a practice piece about 24x24". in a hoop. I like the rockin' the needle and am still self teaching through the videos. there are great quilts with "big stitch" where the stitches are 1/4" to larger. videos on that also.

Thank you for the responses. Glad I am not the only one who struggles. I should have also mentioned. I do get ( if you only count the top stitches) 6 stitches per inch. I think I am just going to put the top of my quilt together ( baby size) and just give it a go. I figure by the end of the quilt I should be even better. But the rest of this week, I am going to go back and draw a design on a scrap and just practice every day. So next week I can work on getting the top of my baby quilt together.

What a wonderful journey this is. Learning to quilt and learning about myself is even better. I so find it relaxing. I loved cross stitching So, I can not see why I can't do some hand quilting.

You people have livened up my hope.

Do your quilting in whatever way is comfortable for you. I have been hand-quilting since 1972 and I STILL can't get that rocking motion with more than one stitch at a time. But you know, I really don't care because it doesn't matter. I still hand quilt all my quilts, and I'm happy with them. And yes, practice does improve the quilting so....just do it.

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 can't quilt or sew with a thimble. When I handquilted I used my fingernail to push the needle. Eventually I would drill a hole in my nail. I did finally find a thimble that I could use but then I could not start a new set of stitches with it on because I use my index finger and my thumb to manipulate the needle so I would slide the thimble on and off as I worked. But as soon as my fingernail grew out enough I was back to only using the thimble to push the fully loaded needle through. I did learn the rocking motion.

We used to have an active member here from Germany (borntohandquilt). that did amazing hand quilting doing only stitch at a time. She also did not use a thimble. Unfortunately she has not participated on the board for a very long time. Here is a link to just one of her posts where she described how she quilted with lots of pictures:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...g-t142087.html


and here is a link to one of her completed quilts.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...g-t206709.html

So the purpose of this response is to assure you there is no right or wrong way to hand quilt. We all do what is most comfortable and works best for us.

So glad to see that I'm not the only one who does the "stab" thing LOL

Thank you so much. Feline Fantastic, thank you for sharing that post. WOW!!. I guess it doesn't really matter how it is done as long as it gets done and you enjoy yourself. Phew, pressure is now off and I am going to just sit back and enjoy the process :)

I learned to hand quilt with a group of experienced hand quilter's around a quilting frame-bee style. At first I was very slow, often took out more stitches than I put in it seemed. The group was very supportive and encouraging and eventually I got the rocking motion. I must confess that I can't use a thimble and use my fingernail. I have drilled holes in my nail, but found that super glue fixed that. Patience and persistence will pay off. I found that consistency of stitches was the part that came last. Just like any other skill, it must be developed with practice and the most defeating thing is to give up.