Does anyone have a quilt magazine that they love for hand piecing? Also do you have a particular pattern that you love and is very easy to do?
Valerie
Woodbridge VA
Good question Valerie. I'm looking forward to the answers you get.
I would usually just hand piece whatever pattern I like. Simply draw your sewing lines on your shapes. I've made templates and I've rotary cut. I also use Inklingo from Linda Franz.
I have wanted to try Inklingo however my printer only works half of the time, and it doesn't seem to like to print pdf files for some reason. Which I don't know why since it is a all in one printer having the scanner and capability to fax as well. It has never worked that great even from the beginning. We got it over a year ago or so.
That's too bad Valerie. Maybe you can download some of the free stuff from the site and see how your printer fares. Have you written to the printer manufacturer?
I really BH&G's Quilting Magazine. I have over time belonged to them all and seen how they change, and usually it is to get rid of the quilting instructions and just keep the piecing/cloth instructions. Nice but it does little for me who wants to know what they are recommending for the quilting. BH&G has a n online presence at www.allpeoplequilt.com and you can get their weekly suggestions without subscribing.
Merry Christmas Qwara
valerie, i don't know off any magazine dedicated to hand piecing.
i can hand piece more precisely than by machine, so any pattern you do by machine you can make by hand.. straight lines are the easiest, but hand piecing itself isn't hard. it is so much easier to do set in seams and points that come together, because the seams aren't sewn down. you sew up to the seam, pass through it and continue down the seam, pushing it to the other side. in groups, here, there are three individual groups -sylvia's bridal sampler, farmer's wife and dear jane- we are making the blocks together. some of us are hand piecing and some are machine piecing. we give each other tips as we go along. i have finished all the blocks to the sylvia quilt. you will pretty much learn any technique you need by doing one of these sampler quilts, so i encourage you to go look at them and see if they interest you.
curved piecing is much easier for me by hand. no that's not right, my curves are technically better by hand. they're pretty easy on th emachine but not always as good. i hope this helped you gini
gini in north idaho
http://www.roserushbrooke.com/how-to-hand-piece-1.html
http://www.amazon.com/Hand-Piecing-Jinny-Beyer-One/dp/1933308001 i have heard this is an excellent resource
georgia bonesteel is also a hand piecer, she may have a book too gini
Jinny Beyer wrote a whole book on it: Quiltmaking By Hand. Her designs are amazing!
So far, I have done a Tumbling Blocks, Thousand Pyramid, and a Civil War-ish star from a Judie Rothermel book.
In many ways, it is much easier to hand piece than machine. You are going slow enough to see problems before they really start. You can also manipulate the fabric a bit more than on a machine, so that it does exactly what you want it to.
The only block I gave up on doing by hand, and ended up machine piecing was a small LeMoyne star. I had no template, as I was following strip piecing instructions, and marking off the 1/4" seam allowance. It didn't work at all. The center bulged out no matter what I did. Once I joined it by machine, the bulge went away.
Linda in Amish Country, Ohio
I love Ginny Byer's work! I don't have this book, but I watched a video/tutorial on The Quilt Show and wow! I could not believe first of all the amount of quilts she produces piecing by hand. It's amazing. I got a lot of good tips from her about how she teaches students to choose fabrics for a quilt and how she designs a quilt. I have only hand pieced 1 quilt. It was a grandmother's flower garden. All those hexes are a good example of a pattern that is better hand pieced.
Linny T
Thank you for the info on the book. After reading your post I have just ordered it through Amazon.
-Traci
And, if you live in Woodbridge, you know you're not very far from Jenny Beyer's shop/studio. They give classes there. Some by Jenny Beyer, but her staff is also good.
~Ann Marie
Jenny Beyer's website is also great ,she has alot of really nice free downloads patterns that are awesome. Barbara
EAT!! SLEEP !! QUILT!!
... and Quiltmaking by Hand (Jinny Beyer). My first two quilts were handquilted -- I have been learning to machine quilt with my sewing machine on my other quilts. There is always something new to learn with quilting!!; I just received three hand-quilting books ordered through Amazon: Hand Quilting (Alex Anderson); Learn to Do Hand Quilting In Justs One Day (Nancy Brenan Daniel)