Originally Posted by joe'smom

The most useful resource for me was Roxanne McElroy's book, 'That Perfect Stitch'. She has the very best photos I've seen to explain the dynamics of the traditional quilting stitch. I started out with that, but could not continue with the traditional stitch because of limitations due to arthritis in my hands. I was thinking I would have to give up on the idea of hand quilting, but then I saw a discussion on this board where someone mentioned Liuxin Newman's book, 'Perfect Hand Quilting without Pain'. The method is similar to the traditional stitch, but Newman's (she's Thimblelady) method eliminates the tension in the fingers and excess movement in the wrist.

I also use Roxanne betweens, Thread Heaven and the little rubber finger. The key thing is not to expect perfection right away, but just keep on stitching. I considered my first hand-quilted quilt a learning quilt, and just kept going, no matter how bad my stitches were.