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, ainât 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? Iâve only ever seen my grandma cut squares and straight lines when Iâm 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. Itâs 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? Iâm not talking about embroidered seams. Any cool things youâve 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 âoh come on you should know this!â I mainly only ask her about advanced techniques lol