Originally Posted by Bree123

The picture is too dark to tell anything. I tried brightening it up in a photo editor, but it just came out grainy. The piecing is quite lovely; I can see why you'd want to hand quilt this.

I am also a newbie to hand quilting. I literally have probably 5 hours under my belt. A few things I've learned (and I'll leave the rest to the experts here)...

- be sure you're using a quilting hoop, not an embroidery hoop
- you need more give in the quilt while it's in the hoop vs. embroidery. With embroidery, you want it taught. With quilting, you need some give to be able to work the stitches. In fact, with certain methods of quilting like fabric folding or Aunt Becky, you need 4-5" of give in the quilt. I know that's at least twice as much as for rocking stitch, but I never took classes on the rocking stitch -- just tried to figure it out from YouTube and that was an epic fail. With the stab stitch method (1 stitch at a time, straight down, then straight up), you have the quilt the tightest. In that case, you want just a tiny bit of give.
- With stab stitching (your method), you want to be sure to go straight down & straight up. It can help to mark your design before you get started so you have something to follow. By holding your needle in the tripod position (using thumb & whichever 2 of the next 3 don't have a thimble on them), you will be able to get the needle to move straight through the fabric, rather than going through at an angle and forming crooked stitches.

Good luck with this! It does get to be more fun the more you practice, but it is a whole new skill. I've been doing hand embroidery for nearly 20 years (cross stitch, pillow cases, whatever I could find). I've done hand beading & started needleturn applique about 15 months ago. I easily learned needleturn & was at 1/10" stitches by the end of my first day & now aim for those 1/16" stitches that are so beautiful. The difference is that with other hand needlework, the back just needs to be "neat", not identical to the front. So hand quilting really is a more difficult skill -- maybe grab a practice piece to work on for a bit. Just grab a ruler or template & mark any design to practice on until you get the hang of things & and can move on to your beautiful Triple Irish Chain quilt.