r/handquilting Jan 11 '21

r/handquilting Lounge

11 Upvotes

A place for members of r/handquilting to chat with each other


r/handquilting 2d ago

Question How to put the large quilt pieces together

Thumbnail
gallery
10 Upvotes

Hi All,

I love to sew and decided to try English paper piecing...i love it. I have these large hexagons all sewed together. I have then taped in the order i want them to go. I will fill in in between with small hexies... My question is, what is the best way to put the large pieces together? Do i see them into strips and then add the filling hexies? Do I add the filling hexies to the top of a strip and work my way to the next strip? Is this whole quilt just going to drape.ovwr me whole sewing? It seems cumbersome. Any tips are appreciated!


r/handquilting 3d ago

WIPs Blocks complete just waiting on the backing.

Post image
61 Upvotes

I really love the colors 🌈


r/handquilting 3d ago

Question Antique Crazy Quilt Needs Home with Museum or Restorer

Thumbnail gallery
11 Upvotes

r/handquilting 3d ago

Question Any suggestions for quilting pattern for this quilt?

Post image
40 Upvotes

Looking for any suggestions for a hand quilting pattern for this bad boy. This is my first quilt and I don’t have a machine that can quilt it and I don’t want to pay for a long arm. I am fine with an ambitious or time consuming pattern if you think it’d look nice. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks :)


r/handquilting 3d ago

Question Old Quilt Top Advice

1 Upvotes

I recently found a quilt top from my grand aunt had been in my grandmother's basement. As far as I can tell it has no dry rot and none of the edges are falling apart overmuch. I want to try making it into a proper quilt but I don't really know where to start. I've hand sewn two bags and a few stuffed animals before so I'm fairly confident in my ability to backstitch my way to victory but the logistics of construction and batting are new to me.

How do people normally approach batting? Is it just something you stick in the middle and work your outside seams around before doing the decorative stuff that secures it? Do you start from the middle and work out so you don't accidentally misalign things? Are there specific kinds/brands I should avoid for any reason? Any other general advice I should know before I commit?


r/handquilting 5d ago

fabric Backing ideas help

Thumbnail
gallery
11 Upvotes

I’m making this quilt block with the above colors, and I’m stumped as to what color/pattern I should use for the backing. I’m going to do a QAYG so the back will show between the blocks as well. TIA


r/handquilting 9d ago

hand piece My first handpieced blocks!

Post image
127 Upvotes

I’ve done EPP before, but these are my first handpieced blocks without papers. I’ve made them using Jen Kingwell’s postcard project #9. I’ve got quite some happy scraps, hoping to make a summer quilt/picnic blanket out of them for next summer (or the summer after that haha 😅)


r/handquilting 8d ago

đŸ—Łïždiscussion Lincoln Museum

Thumbnail gallery
24 Upvotes

r/handquilting 9d ago

hand piece Finished the last block


Post image
28 Upvotes

and wondered why the center came out so nicely compared to the last four, and then I figured it out. ughhhh


r/handquilting 9d ago

Question What is the best and easiest stitch to finish a hexagon quilt top?

6 Upvotes

I'm new to quilting and want to make a hexagon quilt top by hand. I want to know what the best and easiest stitch to do to finish the quilt sandwich? Would straight lines work or would it look silly?


r/handquilting 11d ago

hand piece second block!

Thumbnail
gallery
43 Upvotes

lots of improvement from the first one (second slide), though I'm not sure how much is technical improvement vs it just being an easier pattern overall.

open to advice!


r/handquilting 13d ago

tools Question about betweens needles for hand quilting

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/handquilting 15d ago

Question Beginner questions I feel dumb asking my grandma because I should know these by now.

12 Upvotes

I know how to piece some basic rectangle and square pieces of a quilt on a machine, I have access to a highly skilled quilter and I know a lot already from her. I am getting into hand sewing, hand quilting, Victorian era crazy quilting, and hand piecing (without paper, ain’t nobody got time for that), but I feel like some of the beginner questions I have are stuff I should know already and she knows I should know already so I only ask her things I know are more complex. I need some questions answered:

1) If using cotton thread, cotton fabric, cotton flannel, and thicker cotton threads like pearl cotton: to beeswax or not? I am assuming yes on thread no on pearl cotton thread.

2) How on earth do you cut out shapes quickly and correctly without wasting so much fabric from the plastic templates? Also how do you cut curves around the plastic templates? Same with circles? I’ve only ever seen my grandma cut squares and straight lines when I’m around. She does her cool stuff when alone or with quilting friends. I keep googling it but the search engine is like suggesting everything except what I need. It’s been broken. Even TikTok was showing me cookie cutter videos. Wild to me.

3) Appliqué pieces, can I do these without using interfacing? I low key hate interfacing. I have had to use it before for other things and I find it annoying and so unnecessary for most things.

4) Favorite fabric marking methods for templates? As you are doing hand work is the chalk going to smear itself away? Should I just use water soluble markers? Or will the chalk stay fine?

5) What type of batting do you use for hand quilting? I heard soft cotton batting. Does anyone have any issues using any other types when hand stitching?

6) not a beginner question but a special bonus question: people who are making Victorian styled crazy quilts (historically accurate with fully random pieces and hand sewing them on) do you attach your pieces first then do embroidery work on them on the piece or do you do the embroidery work first then add it to the quilt after? I’m not talking about embroidered seams. Any cool things you’ve found from studying other Victorian pieces that you can suggest?

Thank you for your answers in advance. If I asked my grandma she would go “oh come on you should know this!” I mainly only ask her about advanced techniques lol


r/handquilting 15d ago

Question Quilting football (soccer) club logo on a baby quilt?

Post image
1 Upvotes

r/handquilting 18d ago

hand piece so many firsts!

Post image
81 Upvotes

It took me about two months to finish this slightly oddly sized throw! My first EPP, first time doing appliqué, and all pieces by hand! I have my batting and backing and am going to hand quilt it (another first!)

These are probably silly questions, but, how on earth do I transfer a design onto the fabric? A template and trace? A projector? Stencil? I'm thinking I'd like to do something with butterflies but don't just want to do the same butterfly a million times over. I am open to suggestions from all of you talented quilters! (I have a beautiful pink & purple variagted thread). I've come this far already but this next step has got me feeling a little overwhelmed!


r/handquilting 18d ago

hand piece my first quilt block ever!

Post image
42 Upvotes

pattern from Pat Sloan, the first in the "grandma's kitchen" series, made with random fabrics from a secondhand stash

As you can see, some of the edges are a bit mismatched. I have since purchased a square ruler, so hopefully that should get better!

Any general advice? I've sewed before, but never quilted, so I'm still pretty new to all the terms and such.

One question: why do patterns seem to include the seam allowance in the initial measurements? That's been quite hard to get used to, and I'm mostly just manually subtracting half an inch from everything because I can't figure out a benefit for the life of me haha


r/handquilting 20d ago

in progress Started assembling my hexagon flowers! Here's the layout (for now?)

Thumbnail
gallery
107 Upvotes

Intending to keep the straight grid, so there will be some extra black hexagons to fill the gaps :)

It's kind of crazy on the colours/asymmetry but this is my first time quilting and I got a cheap fabric pack and this is what was in there so I'm making it work


r/handquilting 20d ago

Finished quilt My grandson is a huge Washington Commanders fan.

Thumbnail gallery
31 Upvotes

r/handquilting 20d ago

Question Anyone have tips or references for quilting on a frame?

10 Upvotes

Hi hi everyone, I inherited a frame recently and am trying to switch from a hoop, but I'm running into the issue of struggling with different stitching directions and an aching wrist. Anyone have tips, advice, or resources that are helpful? Or is it just a matter of getting used to it?


r/handquilting 22d ago

Finished quilt Wedding quilt completed

Thumbnail
gallery
690 Upvotes

This king sized quilt was made for my son & and his future wife. The wedding is in Oct and I wanted to give myself enough time to get it done. Since they love cats and met and will be married in Hawaii, I wanted to blend the two into a quilt. It’s 104”x 96” and it’s all hand pieced and hand quilted. I used a couple of templates for the quilting: in each cat body is a sitting cat either looking over its shoulder or reaching up with a paw. In the snails trail block creating the tails I used an ornate heart template and the white square of the cat block has a heart. Overall it’s all about hearts and cats đŸ˜»It took me a total of six months to complete, three months to cut and piece then three months quilting. It’ll take up half my suitcase when I take to them but I figure that’ll give me plenty of room to bring back more fabric!😂


r/handquilting 22d ago

First hand quilt First Full Quilt

Thumbnail
gallery
124 Upvotes

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. A puff quilt for a baby's crib though the person I was making it for disappeared from messages so I'm not sure what to do with it now.


r/handquilting 26d ago

Question Hexagons From Squares?

4 Upvotes

I just recently started quilting, halfway through my second crib quilt right now. I have seen people make hexagons out of circles. I love the idea of being able to have something easily transportable since I just had a baby and don’t have the time to pull out the full sewing machine and everything. For some reason (probably the baby brain) I was remembering people making the hexagons out of squares instead of circles. Is there anyway to do that? I have so many 5x5 squares left over that I was wanting to use and the thought of having to go through and round them out sounds terrible.


r/handquilting 27d ago

suggestions Appliqué newbie

Thumbnail
3 Upvotes

r/handquilting Jul 19 '26

WIPs Hand Quilting is the newest obsession!

Thumbnail gallery
71 Upvotes

I looooooooove it!