Hand Quilting Tips and Tricks: Five Things I Learned From The Quilt Ladies
- Jae Marie
- Apr 14, 2024
- 4 min read
First thing’s first. I know what everyone really cares about is how Freddie and Leona are doing. I’m happy to report that they’re doing great, and they’ve been helping me with spring cleaning. On the one hand, this really tired them out, but on the other hand, they learned to crumb quilt with some of the scraps they found in odd corners. Here they are, enjoying a well-earned nap.
Adorable, aren't they? Yes, quilting is for everyone, and in my quilt guild, we do have exactly one man. Everyone loves him. He's a celebrity of a minor order, and his quilts are amazing. He was a professional quilter and teacher for years. But in my hand quilting group, every member is a woman. So I'll refer to them as The Quilting Ladies. They refer to each other that way, too - “ladies”. Several of them are over 90. They're very cool. Let me tell you, if you don't hang out with anyone far outside your age group, you're missing out for a lot of reasons. Maybe I'll write about that another time.
When someone who's been around longer than two of your life times explains how to get around a difficulty you've been having for years, you pay attention! I want to pass some of those tips and tricks on to you today – stuff I never read in a book or saw on YouTube, but learned in person. Thanks, Quilt Ladies!
1. First stitch is too big?
I know this is a common problem, and there are various ways to try to ameliorate it, but here's one I'd never encountered prior to The Quilting Ladies that I've found very useful: When you start your needleful of stitches, instead of sticking the needle straight down, orient your needle slanted at an acute angle with respect to the direction you intend to stitch. This increases the amount of resistance on the needle and helps make your first stitch smaller.
2. Removing a broken needle with hemostats
If you’re unfamiliar with hemostats, they’re a kind of toothed clamp usually used for medical purposes. They’re shaped more or less like scissors, and come with straight and curved tips. Here’s a picture of mine, along with a close-up so you can see how tiny these teeth are.
The tiny teeth help with gripping very small quilting needles. Now, I’m one of those who sometimes loads too many stitches on the needle. One day I broke three needles before noon! (I think I’m going to do a blog soon on my search for a new go-to needle. I will say changing from a size 10 to a size 11 has helped some.) Anyway, broken needles are a great reason to keep hemostats in your kit. They do come in handy!
3. More securely starting and ending quilting lines
If you are quilting using knots to start and stop your threads, the quilting books that I have seen will instruct you to make a knot about an inch from the end of the thread, pop the knot between the layers, and bring the needle up where you intend to begin quilting. You’re then, these directions say, to trim any leftover thread tail hanging out of the top of the quilt.
However, The Quilting Ladies taught me that you can increase the security of the thread by leaving a longer tail and swishing the tail of the thread underneath the fabric. This takes some practice. You do it by sticking your needle into the fabric and fishing around underneath to find the buried portion thread tail, and then dragging the extra portion underneath the quilt top. Similarly, at the end of the line of quilting, knot the thread next to the fabric, pop the knot under, bring the thread out a needle length away, and then swish some more under again. Or you can always just take the tip of the needle and put another needle length of thread through the batting if that’s easier for you.
4. Retrieving missing or spilled pins and needles with a magnetic wand
These are available for cheap at hardware stores. The one I have came on a telescoping handle, so it folds up and stows nicely in the hand quilting kit I take when I go out. It’s great for picking up big clusters of pins when someone dumps the whole pin bucket, and even better for finding a stray pin or needle when I drop it and can’t figure out where it went. Previously, I used the bottoms of my husband’s feet for this purpose. This made him very grumpy and I’m happy to report that the $7 I spent on my magnetic wand has appreciably improved my marriage.
5. Using a self-threading needle on broken thread to bury a knot
If you’ve hand quilted, it’s happened to you. You’ve got your rhythm going, a nice momentum, you’re happy, you’re peaceful, you’re in the zone. Then your thread breaks, or knots in some bizarre way. What’s a quilter to do? Well, until The Quilting Ladies taught me to use self-threading needles, I’d swear a bit and then grudgingly unpick a dozen stitches or so until I could knot off and bury my thread tail. Happily, I have been introduced to these little babies!
To use them, simply knot your thread right on the quilt top, bury your needle tip into the quilt where you want the knot to enter, pop the thread tail into the slit on the apex of the eye of the needle, and then pull the needle through. Genius! Hurrah! Mine was made by Clover: https://clover-usa.com/products/self-threading-needles
Hopefully there’s something here you found interesting. In other news, it’s spring time here, and Freddie and Leona are clamoring to go play in the puddles. I wonder what happens when dust bunnies get wet? I guess I’m going to find out!
good job j. when does your shop start?