The Perfect Stitch

Fast, efficient, and easy to learn,"the quilting stitch", once mastered, results in small even stitches that turn a beautifully designed quilt into a fine piece of handiwork. When performed correctly, hand quilting causes virtually no stress on the hand or fingers. Quilters who use the quilting stitch correctly can work quickly and for longer periods, with the last stitch as perfect as the first (figure A )!

Materials:

#10 Between quilting needles
YLI cotton quilting thread
quilt top
quilt back
batting
Roxanne thimble
14-inch quilting hoop
small scissors for snipping threads
needle threader
finger cots
Quilter's Choice marking pencils or Stick-n-Stitch quilt design stickies

Tips:

• For the quilt top, Rangefinder Cloth by Spring is recommended. General fabric lines recommend for hand quilting are Hoffman, P&B Textiles, Alexander Henry, Maywood Studios, South Seas Imports, Jenny Byer for RJR Textiles.
• Batting recommendations: Silk Batt or Mountain Mist Quilt Light
• Regarding the quilt backing, remember the thread count on this fabric is as vital as what you use for your quilt top.
• The size of the quilting hoop is determined by the length of your forearm not the size of the quilt. The heavier this hoop is, the better in order to offset your under hand's pushing upwards during quilting.

Steps:

1. Sandwich the quilt by placing the quilt back face down on a table, then spreading batting out over the backing so that some of it is overlapping all four edges of the fabric. Next center the quilt top over the batting, face up. Baste the three layers together using a long thin needle and cotton thread. Basting should be large stitches that work to temporarily hold the quilt layers together--neatness is not important because you'll clip these out later. Work from the center of the quilt out to the straight edges first, then run lines of basting stitches from the center out to the corners. Mark the quilt with a quilting design before sandwiching, unless you are planning to use the Stick-n-Stitch stickies (figure B).

2. Balance the needle at a perpendicular 90-degree angle through the layers of the quilt between the middle finger of the top hand and index finger of the bottom hand. No other part of the hand should touch the needle. Do not push on the needle yet; you will know if you do because your finger will hurt!

3. Without pushing on the needle, causing it to advance through the fabric gently lay the needle backward. The finger underneath pushes up forcefully to ensure that the needle does not advance farther than it should. Move the thumb into position on the quilt near the point at which the needle will resurface .

4. Lay the needle all the way back so that the tip is pointing up. The thumb should be pushing down forcefully on the quilt top immediately in front of the needle tip. The underneath finger continues to push the needle up so that it will resurface as quickly as possible. Only at this time, when the thumb has pushed down and the finger from below is pushing up hard, push on the needle with your thimble to take the stitch. Stop pushing as soon as the needle tip is visible. The amount of needle tip you allow to show through will be the size of your stitch (figure C).

5. With the needle gently caught in a dimple on the thimble, gently lift it back up to a perpendicular angle so that it can barely be felt by the index finger below. This is strictly a rotational movement; the needle should not advance any farther through the fabric (figure D).

6. Once the needle is back to the perpendicular position, you're ready to begin the second stitch. This is exactly the same position as Step 1, except there is now a stitch 'stacked' onto the needle.

7. The underneath finger can now stop pushing up, allowing the thimble finger to push the needle down. The underneath finger should be feeling for the needle tip to clear the fabric. As soon as you feel it, stop pushing (figure E).

8. Repeat step 1 to step 6 to stack a second, third, and fourth stitch on the needle. Pull the needle through the stack of stitches. Use a finger cot on index finger to help grab the needle and avoid strain through the back of your hand) to the end of the thread and then give a gentle tug to tighten lightly. Pull the thread through with the same tension with every stack of stitches to result in consisitent, even lines of quilting (figure F).

9. The number of stitches you can stack varies with the size of your stitches. The general rule is when you can no longer pivot the needle back up to a full 90-degree angle; it is time to pull through. The needle may bend with stitches on it and you will definitely appear to warp the fabric, but the needle did rotate all the way up. Probably one more stitch and it will be time to pull through.