Peckish

Sandy - no, stab stitching and big stitch quilting are not the same. Usually, hand quilters will "load" several stitches on their needle by rocking the needle back and forth as they push it through the fabric. Then they pull the needle and thread all the way through. Most "traditional" hand quilters try to make their stitches as tiny as possible, 10 to 12 stitches per inch. Big stitch quilting throws the goal of 10 to 12 stitches per inch out the window, but you can still load several stitches on the needle with that technique.

Stab stitching is when the quilter simply makes one stitch at a time, instead of rocking the needle and loading several stitches at one time. It's called "stab" because the quilter stabs the needle straight down through the fabric, and then straight back up, to make the stitch.

Mela

I have hand quilted in the past and now want to get back to it. I'm going to try several different things and then settle on what works best. There are so many new gadgets out there now. I know how to do the rocking stitch and do ok, but can't load a lot of stitches on the needle at one time and my stitches are not consistent. My husband bought me a floor frame for my birthday. I just ordered the stab stitch twin needles and figured I might use those when quilting away from me. Hope it works.

kristakz

All I could think was "Ouch". I always rest the eye of the needle on my middle finger when stitching - I'd have dozens of holes in my hand before the first 2 stitches were done

Peckish

These definitely would require a different technique!

Mela

I got the stab stitch quilting book mentioned. You put your dominant hand under the quilt and the non-dominant hand on top. Keep the needle at a 90 degree angle at all time and go up and down. Really pretty easy. The trick is always keeping the needle at the 90 degree angle.