Bearding while hand quilting
 

Friends, I need help. I've never hand quilted, never thought I'd be interested, but I thought I'd try some simple big stitch quilting on a quilt for my youngest since she won't care if the stitches aren't even and beautiful.

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I'm using Fairfield's Nature-Fil Bamboo Blend (50% bamboo, 50% cotton), Valdani 12wt perle cotton thread, a size 7 Clover Embroidery needle, and the top fabrics are a mix of Boundless, Moda, Connecting Threads, a couple batiks, and unknowns. The backing is a pre-washed flannel. With almost every stitch, I'm seeing batting coming through with the thread.

Is my needle way too big? It's so hard to get the thing threaded in the first place that I was afraid to go smaller. Is there anything I can do to minimize the bearding? It's not an option to take the sandwich apart because I glued the backing and batting together, then flip and stitched each wide strip. I'm just mixing in the hand quilting because I thought it'd be different and fun.

The bearding isn't fun :( Thanks for any advice!

I do a good deal of hand quilting. Don't be afraid to switch plans and try a different thread. I know it sounds like a lot of work but make a sample piece of the same fabrics and bat, it doesn't need to be more than 4x4" and do some practice stitching this will help you to determine witch thread works best. I alway use wax on my thread. Another thing that is a "live and learn" thing is the strength of your thread to withstand wear. Not all quilt thread wears well. Some fall apart in a year or so. I have had several quilts sent back to "mom" to fix. By the time I get them back it is usually a major fix. This is a great forum to ask about how well specific threads wear. FYI one that does not wear well is (at least for me) is American Quilt Thread. It is easy to stitch with but is not as durable in the long run for a bed quilt. Very good for a Show quilt that is not getting used on a daily basis.

I agree with waxing/conditioning most hand quilting thread but not sure how that would work with the pearle cotton. To me, it would almost defeat the purpose of that particular thread/style of quilting.

If you haven't gotten too far into the quilt, definitely try a different thread/needle and see if the bearding continues or not.

Your other option is to continue on your current path. Since you mention this is a quilt for your youngest who wouldn't know/care about the stitching, just continue with your current plan and finish as you had planned. After washing, the bearding probably will not show at all.

When I am hand quilting my first choice is Aurifil thread, they have a 28 wt and second is Gutermann thread either the Quilting or 40 wt. I use John James quilting needles, size 10 or 11 Golden Glide which has larger eye and coating to help go through the fabric and I use Thread Heaven also.

I dug out a small tin of beeswax someone gave me and tried that. Tried rubbing it in with my fingers, then on other lengths of thread, tried ironing it in to melt it in. It helped a little at least but way more work than I had planned! I see that Thread Heaven is discontinued so I'm trying to decide if the cost now is worth it? There is something else called Thread Magic - has anyone used that with perle cotton?

I also tried going down to a size 9 needle and it shredded the thread, so I tried the size 8. It's going ok but still bearding some. I've never had this happen while machine quilting, and since I've only ever machine quilted, this is entirely new to me! I had read that hand quilting through Warm and Natural was awful, and also had read that hand quilting bamboo was delightful, which is how I ended up in this particular situation :) Live and learn, I guess.

Youngest is 2 years old, so she really won't care. @NJ do you really think washing will reduce the look of some of the bearding?

eta: I also thought Valdani was one of the better brands of perle? I know DMC is available in big box stores, but one of the comparisons of threads I read said the DMC wasn't always even thickness throughout the length, and that Valdani and Presencia were both evenly smooth with good luster. I've been eyeing a box of Sulky 12wt since apparently you can also run that (slowly) through your machine, but I have a variety of the Valdani colors so thought I'd try to use that first. Live and learn...

Maybe with the bigger thread you're using with the perle cotton, bigger holes are being punched into the fabric that allows the batting to be pulled through. Just my thoughts. You may want to google Big Stitch quilting to see what is recommended or try searching here for Big Stitch. Good Luck!

Maybe with the bigger thread you're using with the perle cotton, bigger holes are being punched into the fabric that allows the batting to be pulled through. Just my thoughts. You may want to google Big Stitch quilting to see what is recommended or try searching here for Big Stitch. Good Luck!
I love Sulky 12 weight for redwork projects. Aurifil makes some thicker threads but I haven't tried them yet.

Just a thought here ...

Any chance that it is the needle ... grabbing the batting, pulling it through and causing the bearding?
Thinking ... a sharper more slippery needle to the rescue?

Thanks for the suggestions!

Well, reading other threads and blogs was what made me choose the bamboo batting, which I'm wondering if that's what's causing the bearding. If I stitch with the needle and no thread, there's no bearding, so my guess is it's not the needle? The red and orange threads so far seem to be the worst, and the yellow seems to be ok, but it's also entirely possible the fibers just show up more against the red and orange! It's always worst on the first stitch after I've buried the knot.

In all the reading I've done on big stitch and perle cotton, no one talks about waxing the threads or using thread conditioner. So odd! I didn't expect to have this issue.