Hand Quilting Stitches Patterns
what is the best way to start a whole quilt?
i am experienced in piecing quilts and hand sewing. i would love the intricate stitching but am not sure how to begin the pattern on a whole piece.
I suggest you begin with something small! Cut 2 pieces of white muslin and 1 piece of batting, all 12″ square. Use a stencil or free-hand a design lightly with an ordinary No. 2 pencil on one of the pieces of fabric. Make a quilt sandwich. Baste it, with 1″ or so stitches over the sandwich but with smaller stitches at the edges. Now — give it a try! You can use white thread, which is traditional, or a brightly colored thread just because it’s pretty and fun and it’s easy to see what you are doing. As with quilting of other things, begin in the center and work your way toward the edges. You can pull out the binding as you go, of course. When the quilting is finished, add some edging all around the block. Ordinary bias binding works well, or you can use binding you make. Either way, it’s good practice for mitered corners! When the binding is attached to please you, toss your mini-quilt into the washing machine and dryer. By the time you have made your first little experiment, you will know whether you really enjoy whole cloth quilting. You can make another mini-quilt of the same size as the first, with different pattern and thread, and put the two together as a pillow. (I always use a colored thread when I do whole cloth quilts, and have found that colors look quite different between being on the spool and in the quilt. They also tend to handle differently from color to color even within the same brand. So, for every whole cloth quilt I have made, I have a pillow I made first to test out fabric and threads before getting busy with a bed-size quilt.) As you can probably see, I adore whole cloth work and do quite a bit of it. But others decide it’s not for them, and that’s fine, but do make that decision with something small!
Hand Sewing Stitches : Basic Running Stitch
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