Question: Needles?

Nancy,

I use size 11 quilting needles. For me, the shorter the needle, the better, as I find I have more control over it. Someone - I think it's the Thimble Lady - uses much longer needles, but her method of quilting is different than the standard rocking stitch.

Thanks, Louise. I did find the short needle easy to "rock" through the fabric, but found myself dropping it often. Probably because the end of my finger is numb. :-) (I have yet to get comfortable with a thimble...)

Nancy in NS

Shorter needles will give you shorter stitches....eventually. Most people start with larger needles and work down to smaller as they get better at quilting. But do use "quilting" needles.

Betty in WI

I like #12 betweens. You can't really do a rocking stitch with a longer needle, unless you have space alien fingers ;-) And if you do any curved designs, you won't want to pull up as many stitches anyhow. Roberta in D

"Nancy in NS" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Yes, the shorter needle works well for me and anything I can do to shorten stitch length is a bonus. :)

Nancy in NS

Thanks, Betty. Yes, I have quilting needles. I guess I'll stay with the shorter length as I seem to be doing ok with it. Practice, practice, practice. :)

Nancy in NS

The ThimbleLady uses a long needle and get lovely stitches, but most of us use "betweens", which are a very short needle. My personal experience has been that the smaller the needle, the smaller the stitches, but YMMV and it does take some practice. I use a size 11 needle and find it nice and short while still being pretty sturdy; size 12 tends to bend for me. HTH

FWIW - The Thimblelady also uses a completely different method of stitching - hence her use of longer needles.

Cheryl & the Cats _ _ _ _ _ _ ( > Y < ) ( > Y < ) ( > Y < ) ~ ~ ~ Enness Boofhead Donut Now in hibernation with a wake-up call for Spring!

: > Over the weekend, I started doing the hand quilting on the : > baby quilt I'm working on and have a question about needles. : > Basically, is there a preferred/correct length for hand : > quilting? I have been using a relatively short needle which : > is easy to negotiate through the fabric, but results in : > fewer stitches with each pull of thread. I'm not trying to : > speed up the process -- I just wondered if anyone could : > advise. : >

: > Thanks in advance if you can help. : >

: > Nancy in NS : >

: : The ThimbleLady uses a long needle and get lovely stitches, but most of : us use "betweens", which are a very short needle. My personal experience : has been that the smaller the needle, the smaller the stitches, but YMMV : and it does take some practice. I use a size 11 needle and find it nice : and short while still being pretty sturdy; size 12 tends to bend for me. : HTH : -- : Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas : my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front : : AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education

Thanks both, Sandy and Cheryl. I guess I'll stick with the short. :)

Nancy in NS

I personally have always preferred the shorter needles. i have more control with them since it is next to impossible for me to use a thimble. My finger would get more tore up trying to push the needle through a larger number of stitches that I was always trying to do with longer needles. I also found for me that longer needles bent or broke more often. So now I only use shorter needles and a big on waxing the thread to be sure of smoother stitching. julia

ouch! No protection at all on your finger?

I have anti-thimble students who wrap first aid tape around their fingers. I supply those suede "dots" that are sold for thimble hater(thimble pad?). Though once I had a student who had to put one on every finger because once one was stuck on she automagically used a different finger :-)

I do understand. I took me years to find one that fit comfortably. Then, I had to wear it around the house for a few days to get over the weird feeling of something on my finger.

best of luck finding something comfortable. Better than drilling a hole through your finger.

marcella

I like 12s too, but I can't see well enough to thread them any more!!!

Thanks, Marcella -- and I'll definitely look into the suede dots. That just might be the trick for me! You're right -- anything is preferable to a hole in the finger. :)

Nancy in NS

Hi Julia -- thanks for sharing your preferences with me. :) I've been using a Gutermann quilting thread which so far hasn't given me any grief.

Nancy in NS

Get a threader. Either one of those little wire thingies, or a human helper with good eyes. The human can slip a whole package of needles onto the thread for you, so you can grab the end-most needle, pull out a length of thread, and snip off, leaving all the other needles threaded. A little rubber band would keep the end of the thread from getting loose and dropping all the needles. Roberta in D

"Louise" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:Wx2Eg.90733$FQ1.29078@attbi_s71...

My favorite thimble is the John James with the magnetic tip for this very reason. It's easy to "spring" the needle when inserting the 1st stitch, and the thimble magnet is sometimes enough to keep the needle from flying away. And when I do drop it, the thimble picks it up. Roberta in D

"Nancy in NS" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

How clever! Since I will be soon quilting together these quilts this is one trick I will keep in mind. This threading trick will be great for evenings when the lighting is a bit lower in the living room and we are watching tv. julia

Roberta Zollner wrote: