Hand quilting techniques for beginners (on perle cotton) | Sarah Fielke Craftsy Quilting Tutorial

I'm Sara Fiocchi online instructor for crafts e-comm in this little promo I'm going to show you a little bit about my favorite thing about quilting which is hand quilting now I know that there are a lot of people out there who the thought of hand quilting is just absolutely terrifying but I'm here to tell you I'm converting the world one hand quilter at a time and my method of hand quilting is is much quicker than a traditional Amish hand quilting method I use a thicker thread it's much faster to do but quite apart from being fast it's incredibly therapeutic and it gives you quilts a really really beautiful look and feel to them and a definition that I just don't think that you get from machine quilting and that might just be my opinion but anyway I'm just going to show you a few of the little quilts that are actually in our crafts C class that I've had quilted I hand quilt nearly everything these little stitches here you can see this definition here they're all done by hand and I just think it gives the quilts a softness and graphic energy that you really don't get from an all-over machine quilting pattern and that is the main reason that I like hand quilting frequently when I send my Clips away to be machine quilter my machine quilter wins awards she's absolutely fantastic but I'm always sad when they come back I look at them and think gee I wish I hang out at that I really hope you all just give it a little go you might need to watch this promo a lot of times before you get it right I have been hand quilting for over 20 years so please don't look at this and be you know disappointed you just need to keep practicing and keep practicing and by the time you've hand quilted say a small cot quilt you'll be cooking with gas and it'll all be fine so what you need before you start you need a quilting hoop which is not an embroidery hoop don't go to you know your local craft shop and buy one of those little thin things you need a good thick embroidery hoop quilting hope so that it holds the layers together with enough force and also after over time those little embroidery hoops will just crack they won't take the weight of your quill you will also need some perlite cotton this is what I quilt with traditional Amish quilting is done with a waxed cotton and you take very tiny little stitches with a very short needle I use a much thicker thread it shows up much more you can take larger stitches and use a vegan needle which is what I like it comes in a lot of different colors this is a DMC thread and I also really really like using a presenter thread which is available from finca so that's that one this is the thimble that I like this is a clover open sided thimble you wear it on the front of your finger with the open side to the back it stops your finger from from sweating and it has all these little dimples in the front that holds the needle for you and if you get stuck on a really you know hard part between seams you have this little shelf here that will help you push the needle through these are the needles I like using this is a John James pebble they're cruel embroidery needles and they come in a pack usually size 10 to 12 and I use all the different sizes that are in the pack I also really like the DMC knit also very nice you do need to buy a good quality needle for hand quilting if you buy a really cheap you know thin one it will just snap it won't take the weight of the the force of the quilting so you do need to you know I mean needles are not expensive but you do need to invest in a good sort of $4 $5 packet of needles to get some that will really take the weight and the last thing that you need is a little pair of nice sharp embroidery scissors to clip your threads off when you finish quilting if you use big threads or big scissors you can sometimes clip the top of your quilt and that is a really sad sad thing to have happen so we're going to learn just a few basic stitches and how to start and end your threads cut a piece of thread that's not too long you don't want to be taking a stitch like this and also if you have a really big long thread sometimes these pearls get a bit fuzzy so not too long and you want to tie just a one loop not like a really basic one loop granny knot don't roll it off your finger or do anything fancy it will be too thick to go through the fabric if you do that so just a one look not always make sure that you sit nice and straight when you're quilting sit at a table and balance the hoop on the table or sit on the couch in put a cushion underneath you or something like that but it's almost like breast feeding you want to make sure that you're sitting right and you have your shoulders nice and straight so that you don't hurt yourself and get shoulder pain and back pain and you always quilt towards yourself so we're not going to quilt sideways as soon as you go side what is you put your shoulder up and you'll be in all sorts of pain so we're going to clip towards us sitting nice and straight so I have my hand at the back of the quilt and you can probably see it bouncing up and down there I'm going to put the needle in in between the two layers of fabric into the batting or the wadding and just slide it through so I can feel with my hand at the back that that actually hasn't come out and the knot is going to pop through pull the knot all the way to the end and give a little sharp tug and it's just going to pop through and lodge in the wadding there and not come out once we've done that we're ready to quilt oh my stitches I take quite small stitches you can take up to a quarter of an inch long stitch that's absolutely fine there's no problem with making them that big and it'll be much quicker whew when you're starting to be able to take them that large it's more about them being even than anything else so concentrate on trying to get them even rather than trying to get them small so you go into the fabric the length of the stitch that you want to be my finger is right underneath that needle at the back and the needles actually balancing in between the tip of my finger and the and the thimble and it can just stand straight there I have calluses on my fingers at the back if you find that you're getting sore fingers you can wear a little stick on fimble at the back call the thimble at odhh I think there's a few different brands of them don't wear a big thimble at the back because you need to be able to feel how much that needles come through because that's actually the size of the stitch on it on the back so don't wear a big thing ball up the back so that's balancing on my finger at the back I'm going to rock the needle down flat push my finger up in the back and my thumb down in the front and push the needle through the heel straight down into the fabric at a 90 degree angle rock the needle flat push my finger up in the back of my thumb down in the front and push the needle through the heel you will probably almost immediately find that this happens do you get this great big gap here that's because you can see as I turn the needle I pushed it so you're not going to push it anywhere until you have your little heel so stand it up straight rock it down flat make the hill push through the hill when you're sitting at home hand-stitching hear my voice in your head please saying thumb down in front because that's what's making you heal as you get a little bit better you going to be able to take a couple of stitches at a time when you're ready to sign off you're going to bring your underneath hand to the top of the quilt hold the thread out to the side and take the needle underneath that thread and keep holding on to it and pull the top thread until that knot is right down on the quilt top and put your finger on the top and pull so that the knots tied right down low close to the quilt top put your hand at the back again to make sure that that threads not coming out the needle is not coming out you can go back down the hole that that thread is coming out of slide through the batting again a little way away just give that a tug thread will disappear and then you can use your little snippy scissors there to just clip that off so that is how to hand quilt I really really hope you will try it and if you do and you're converted to hand quilting or maybe even you just clip one quilt please let me know because I love knowing that I may be inspired somebody in Hankook hope you enjoyed it i'm sarah phil key if you enjoyed this make sure and check out my class big techniques from small scraps on craftsy.com you

Channel: Craftsy

Views: 441,506

Keywords: step-down piecing, hand quilting techniques, hand quilting, hand quilting for beginners, quilting by hand, hand quilting tutorial for beginners, beginner hand quilting, hand quilt, scrap quilting, quilting how to, Brother sewing machine, Janome, Singer, Pfaff, Craftsy, Sarah Fielke, quilting, applique, quilts, free motion quilting, quilt, how to quilt, quilt hoop, how to embroider, quilt how to, beginner quilting, quilt designs, quilting a quilt

Id: 8DXN5Ger_jo

Length: 8min 58sec (538 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 08 2013