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Name: thunder central florida Proud Army Mom Proud Navy Mom
quilter5 wrote:I'm not hand piecing Susan. Just learning one of the methods (rocker stitch) of hand quilting (putting the layers together). It was a really interesting class. My biggest problem is that I've never used a thimble and to do this, you need to use one. With a lip on it so it can be used to guide the needle. Also, I have had the fabric too taunt in the hoop. It needs to be loose enough to rock the needle. I learned a couple tips I thought were really useful. When doing echo quilting, she said to try using the 1/4" tape as a quide and stitch along side of it and to use to stitch 1/4" away from a seam line.... Another hint to quilt shapes was to use white contact paper as a template to stitch around. It sticks to the fabric enough but doesn't leave any residue and can be used several times over. She is not fond of marking a quilt unless it is truly necessary and then she prefers to use a Hepa to make a crease to stitch along rather than a marking pencil of any kind. If you do need to mark she advised using a water soluable one and to make sure that you wet it enough (Without soaking) to erase any marking that may have bled down into the batting. She said sometimes that doesn't get wet enough and shows through later on the top of the quilt.
All in all it was a fun class. The most important thing she said was the "It's not important how small your stitches are but how even they are"!!!! That made me happy!!!!
what a sweet fairy princess you have dancing in your garden Thunder
Barb the size & number doesn't matter as long as they arn't toe hangers try out a few different thimbles till you find one that works well for you .
my fingers are big and I can't use a metal thimble
Name: thunder central florida Proud Army Mom Proud Navy Mom
Kiz, I had always thought it was only the stitches on the top, but if you think about it....it makes sense that both top and bottom would be counted...
Name: Jaye or Sistah North Carolina, temporarily. Lord Jesus, He's all I need.
Ooops sorry Kiz. I meant to post this too:
When I first learned, I was taught to count the all top stitches that lay within the 1 inch.
I didn't use a regular thimble but a leather one. Thank God for machine quilting.. I gave up when I failed to make uniform stitches plus those knots that insisted on NOT burying themselves in the batting!!
guess I'm not a very good hand quilter then..... I checked a small piece I had worked on, there was only 4-5 on top..... and I thought I was doing decently as I was counting each up and down of the needle...
I still feel she said it right. Doesn't matter how many stitches to the inch as long as they are the best you can do and they are even. And she said if you MUST count, to count both top and bottom. You hear so much about 14-16 sts to an inch and there is no way to do that without counting both. I like the relaxing feeling while doing it so I won't worry about the count!!!! It is what it is~~~~~
well, yeah.... if you count the stitches on the top that you see, say 5, then underneath you see 4, that's a total of 9.... considering that the 4 underneath connect to the 5 above... kind of like 'the hand bones connected to the wrist bone, the wrist bone connected to the arm bone'.... etc, etc...
Thanks Barb for clarifying and passing on what you're learning. I don't think I'll ever be able to do 12-15 per inch with these fingers, but I can make the ones I have even!
Name: thunder central florida Proud Army Mom Proud Navy Mom
I always only counted the top stitches only.....every now and then just to sorta "see where I'm at" don't really care about the number...just try for "even". I have noticed that if I don't stitch for awhile...my beginning stitches are bigger, and as I get into it...the stitches get smaller...............read a tip at another site...............stitch a bit on a practice sandwich, before stitchin on your quilt, to "limber up".............now why didn't I ever think of that????
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time for a new sewing room 
try out a few different thimbles till you find one that works well for you .
