Watson

My friend would like a baby quilt for her baby's room but would like it more as a wall hanging and would like it hand-quilted.

I don't know nuthin' 'bout no hand quiltin'!

Are certain types of patterns better than others to hand quilt?

I was thinking of this one and I would quilt in 1/4" from all the seams? Or would you sitd? Or both?

http://www.favequilts.com/Quilts-For...sh-Baby-Quilt/

Or does that pattern seem too challenging for a start?

I've got until September.

Watson

ManiacQuilter2

I don't know what to tell you. Tell her the truth, that you don't know how to hand quilt. It take time to really get up to speed with accurate stitches and straight quilted lines. Usually most of the hand quilting I did was outlining a 1/4" from the ditch.

Watson

I told her already. She wants me to try anyway.

Watson

Doggramma

Well that quilt has a lot of seams. Lots of seams means it takes longer to quilt. Usually with hand quilting, you "load up" the needle with multiple stitches then pull it through. It's obviously easier with less seams in the way. Do you think they would go for big stitch hand quilting? That would go faster. It can be done with regular thread or pearle cotton.

Prism99

One thing to keep in mind when hand quilting is that the batting can make it very easy or very difficult. Your batting choice will be *extremely* important. Hobbs wool batting is probably the best choice, Hobbs 80/20 would be my second choice. Cotton puts more drag on the needle. If you decide on cotton, stay away from cotton batting with scrim such as Warm and Natural, as the scrim adds a lot of drag. Wool is easiest to hand quilt, as is a thin polyester batting.

With hand quilting you do not want to stitch in the ditch. You can stitch 1/4" away from seams, and you can also quilt designs. However, it is much harder to hand quilt through seams, so you would want to keep any designs inside a quilt block.

Boston1954

If she is wanting a wall hanging, you could do something on the small side. This is 15 1/2 x 14.

Geri B

...and you can do large stitch hand quilting...less stressful for beginners, uses thicker thread too, I believe...and since it's going to be a wallhanging you don't need lots of it!

Bree123

I agree with Geri -- go for big stitch quilting if you can.

I have just started on a Holice Turnbow stamped wholecloth for my newborn nephew. We wanted cotton, so I got Hobbs Organic 100% cotton. There are no seams, but it is still insanely difficult. Still, I'm glad that at least there are no seams since I have done some small amounts of hand quilting on my larger crib quilts before if it was on a smaller scale because I couldn't manage that on my machine at the time. You don't need to buy a stamped wholecloth. You could just buy a piece of fabric in their favorite color(s) -- or even a cheater cloth -- and avoid the thick seams. QD Request is ultra thin & the easiest to quilt through, but it gives almost no definition to the quilting (which seemed a shame to me, so I went with the Hobbs).

At any rate, I spent quite a bit of money on the supplies. The hand quilters here could advise you whether you need a hoop or not if you go very small. Typically, it's the weight of the quilt that allows hoopless quilters to work on their lap. In addition, I spent 3 weeks studying & practicing before starting. It will probably take me 250 hours to complete a crib sized quilt that is mostly 2" cross hatch quilting (basting, quilting & self-binding). If you really want to practice hand quilting, go for it! But I hope your friend realizes what an amazingly generous gift you are giving her. Where I live, hand-quilted baby quilts sell for $3,500+. I can't imagine giving (or getting!) such an extravagant gift!

quilting cat

Stitching in the ditch would hide the hand stitches, which is not what your friend has asked for. I would save the fishes for a machine sid quilt later. Maybe do something a little smaller, between 18" and 30", perhaps with a pieced center and appliqued wide border, larger pieces and space around the appliques to quilt 1/4" from edges?

NJ Quilter

I agree with the others that lots of seams can be painful to hand quilt. I also would not bother to hand quilt in the ditch. I do use W&N when I hand quilt and don't seem to have a problem. Then again, I've not tried others so don't know any better <g>. The type of batting you decide will determine how densely you will need to quilt.

I do generally use a hoop while quilting although sometimes do not. I probably would with a baby quilt only because I find it's easier to find where I've stopped next time I go back to it.

If you decide to do traditional vs big-stitch hand quilting, just make sure you use 'hand quilting thread'. Get yourself a good thimble. If you decide to do something more decorative than say 1/4" away from your seams, try to use a 'continuous line' quilting pattern. The one I'm working on currently really isn't and it's really frustrating me with all the stopping/starting. And I need to get this thing done in the next few weeks - yikes!