Easy Quilting Instructions
Attend any quilt show or flip through a national quilting magazine and you will see quilts with amazingly small and even stitches. Beginning quilters often dispair of ever creating stitches like those in museums, but many are unaware of the techniques to excellent quilting. Although the quilt stitch looks much like the regular running stitch in hand piecing, the method is totally different. This stitch, known as a rocking stitch, will help you to make small and even quilt stitches, from your first quilt.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Basted quilt
- Thimble
- Betweens needles
- Cotton quilt thread
- Quilting hoop
- Scissors
Instructions
-
-
1
Loosen the butterfly nut on the quilt hoop so that you can separate the two pieces. Lay the basted quilt on top of the inner hoop with the marked quilt design centered in the hoop. Place the outer hoop on top of the quilt and push down, sliding the two hoops together and trapping the quilt between the two hoops. Tighten the butterfly nut to secure the hoops in place.
-
2
Cut an 18-inch piece of quilting thread and thread a between needle. This type of needle is specially made for quilting and is generally shorter than regular sewing needles. Tie a knot in one end of the thread.
-
-
3
Take a small stitch in the top layer of fabric in the quilt with the needle coming up on a quilting line. Pull the thread gently until the knot pops through the fabric and into the layers of the quilt. If you have a difficult time pulling the knot through, gently scratch the fabric around the knot to loosen the threads of the fabric, or cut off the knot and make a smaller one.
-
4
Position the quilt in front of you with your left hand below the quilt and your right hand above it. Balance the needle with the point on the quilting line right next to where the thread came up. Hold the eye with your thimble. Push down gently with your thimbled finger until you can just feel the point of the needle with a finger on your underneath hand.
-
5
Place your right thumb on the fabric just ahead of where the needle went in. Push down on the fabric with your thumb. At the same time, lay your right-thimbled hand down onto the surface of the quilt, keeping the needle trapped between the thimble and the quilt. The needle will go from standing straight up to laying down, while keeping the tip in exactly the same place.
-
6
Push the needle gently with your thimbled finger just you just see the point of the needle sticking out from the fabric. Immediately rock your thimbled finger back up so that the needle is again vertical. You have now created your first quilting stitch.
-
7
Push the needle back down just until you can feel the point protrude with your underside finger. Immediately push the top of the quilt down with your right thumb and rock the needle back down until the needle comes back up to the top of the quilt.
-
8
Continue rocking the needle back and forth until you have three or four stitches on your needle. Pull the needle completely through the fabric at this point, pulling the thread taut without gathering the fabric on the thread. Place your needle point slightly ahead of where the thread came up through the fabric and begin again.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If you have a hard time pulling the thread out of the fabric with multiple stitches on it, try using a balloon in your left hand to help grip the needle.
Experiment with different thimbles until you find one that is comfortable for your hand and stitching style.
Your underneath finger will get sore from repeated poking with a sharp needle tip. You will eventually develop a callous on this finger, and then it won't hurt so much to get poked.
References
- Photo Credit quilts image by Christopher Martin from Fotolia.com
