lolagrace

Last year I hand pieced a variation of the drunkard's path quilt, I actually replicated a quilt made by my great grandmother in the late 1920's - early 1930's. In keeping with the hand piecing, I also hand sewed the backing and am now hand quilting it. I am no where near attaching the binding but my plan is to do that by hand as well. My question is what size needle would any of you suggest be used to sew through 4 layers of fabric and the thin cotton batting I am using? Truth be told I am not looking forward to the binding but I want this quilt to be entirely hand sewn/quilted. The hubby keeps reminding me I have machines here to do that 😊 Thank you to all that respond, be safe, stay healthy & have a wonderful holiday season.

lolagrace

Perhaps I should have been more specific in my question. I was unaware there are specific needles made for sewing binding. Some of the reviews of those are they are much too thick. I generally use whatever needle I think is best and will probably do the same once I get to that point in this project.

juliasb

I use a size 10 quilting needle when hand quilting. I can smoothly move the needle in and out and catch just the right amount of fabric and batting all at the same time to give me about 10-12 stitches per inch. I have never done a drunkards path but have done 6 double wedding rings this way.

bearisgray

Use whatever one goes through the layers and is comfortable to use.

You probably do not want to buy many packs of needles - I think some of the members can suggest brands they favor.

"My" needle is the one that I can thread on a particular day.

cashs_mom

Oh my gosh! I hear that Bear. I've been using embroidery needles more and more because they have a long eye and I can thread them most any day.

Sync

I have hand pieced and hand quilted many of my quilts. When it comes to putting on the binding I use my machine and then hand sew the binding to the back. I guess I don’t feel that putting on the binding by machine makes my quilts any less hand sewn.

quiltedsunshine

Instead of putting a binding on, you could finish it with a knife-edge. That's how my mother taught me to finish quilts. Here's a blog post about it. https://www.gathered.how/sewing-and-...finish-quilts/

Peckish

Are you asking what size needle you should use for quilting? Or binding? Because it sounds like you're already quilting it. If you're asking about binding, I would suggest that you don't stitch through all 4 layers. When sew on the binding, use a running stitch and go through the binding, top layer of quilt, and into the batting, then come back up. Don't sew all the way through to the backing. Then once you flip the binding to the back side, do the same thing - sew through the backing and into the batting, then back up into the binding.
Clear as mud?

There *are* needles that are marketed as binding needles, but that doesn't mean you have to use them. I've tried them, but because I've used betweens for so long, I find the binding needles too big and thick.

lolagrace

Thank you Peckish for your response and advice. It's clearer than mud 😉 I get the idea. Yes I am hand quilting this already and when taking a little break I was searching online for needles & was surprised to see "binding" needles - never heard of them. Then the brain starts to wonder about attaching the binding. So again thank you for your response.

This is the quilt top

cashs_mom

Very pretty, Lolagrace!