Marianne
Super Self-Sufficient
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2011
- Messages
- 3,269
- Reaction score
- 355
- Points
- 287
- Location
- rural Abilene, KS, 67410 USA
I hand quilted for years, and loved it! My top suggestions for newbies is to:
Use 100% cotton ONLY (the poly/cotton blends will stretch a bit and throw everything off whack),
DON'T use a sheet for the backing (it might be cotton but you'll have a devil of a time quilting through it)
If you can afford it, buy one of those mats used for roller cutting and the roller cutter. The mats have a grid on them, so it's easy to put your block on it and square it up with the roller cutter. I also used a metal 2' long ruler to cut against when using the roller cutter. Really helpful if you want to do a crazy quilt.
And I found a leather thimble that actually fit and I'd wear.
I got to the point where I saved any scrap of material that was one inch square for minature quilts. Had one that had pieces the size of my little fingernail, but that one had to be sewn on a machine with backing paper, then the paper torn off the block afterwards. What fun!
One of my favorites were white on white miniatures. Picture frame size quilts, with off white muslin and decorative hand stitching in white thread, in the tiniest stitches I could manage. A 6" x 8" quilt would take me about 8 hours to quilt, another hour or so to finish the edges with tatting or a bit of lace and use hardly any material or batting. Snazzy presents! I worked on them all through the year to have gifts at Christmas and I bet they cost me probably $1 each, if that. Just time.
Ask around, hit the thrift stores for material. I got tons of scraps from friends to get my stash built up. Old dresses, shirts...if you know they're cotton. Mark down table, sales at the fabric/craft stores. You used to be able to order bundles of 'fat quarters', from quilting magazines pretty reasonably and there would be all kinds of prints and colors. The fat quarters are typically 18" wide and 22 to 24" long (each piece of material). It's a cheap way to get lots of different colors and patterns. (or used to be, anyway!)
Have fun!!
Use 100% cotton ONLY (the poly/cotton blends will stretch a bit and throw everything off whack),
DON'T use a sheet for the backing (it might be cotton but you'll have a devil of a time quilting through it)
If you can afford it, buy one of those mats used for roller cutting and the roller cutter. The mats have a grid on them, so it's easy to put your block on it and square it up with the roller cutter. I also used a metal 2' long ruler to cut against when using the roller cutter. Really helpful if you want to do a crazy quilt.
And I found a leather thimble that actually fit and I'd wear.
I got to the point where I saved any scrap of material that was one inch square for minature quilts. Had one that had pieces the size of my little fingernail, but that one had to be sewn on a machine with backing paper, then the paper torn off the block afterwards. What fun!
One of my favorites were white on white miniatures. Picture frame size quilts, with off white muslin and decorative hand stitching in white thread, in the tiniest stitches I could manage. A 6" x 8" quilt would take me about 8 hours to quilt, another hour or so to finish the edges with tatting or a bit of lace and use hardly any material or batting. Snazzy presents! I worked on them all through the year to have gifts at Christmas and I bet they cost me probably $1 each, if that. Just time.
Ask around, hit the thrift stores for material. I got tons of scraps from friends to get my stash built up. Old dresses, shirts...if you know they're cotton. Mark down table, sales at the fabric/craft stores. You used to be able to order bundles of 'fat quarters', from quilting magazines pretty reasonably and there would be all kinds of prints and colors. The fat quarters are typically 18" wide and 22 to 24" long (each piece of material). It's a cheap way to get lots of different colors and patterns. (or used to be, anyway!)
Have fun!!
I got stalled on the quilting. It is still on my frame and I work on a few rows every year. LOL I do feel a bit more motivated on it now that I did binding on two quilts that went together super easy.
