Think about Hand Piecing!

I'm preparing some updates to my Hand Piecing class at www.quiltuniversity.com that begins September 16th. Have you considered hand piecing your blocks or quilts? Does it sounds time consuming or monotonous? You might be very surprised at how quickly the work can go if you follow these simple steps:

• In hand piecing we can pick a comfortable chair, curl up in front of the TV or at the beach. We can relax and do the piecing any time and anywhere we choose. The stitching is repetitive, almost always it is a running stitch, which is easy to manipulate by your fingers with a few pins if needed.


• Preparation is key for hand piecing. By tracing and cutting all the pieces needed for your work and then having them ready for the hand work, you will save time.

• Few tools are needed for your work. Needle, thread, small scissors and a thimble are all the tools needed. Buy good quality and they will last a long time.

• We can use short periods of time to work on our project. It is easy to find a few spare minutes in our day to pick up a project and add a few stitches.

• If you have made the preparations, small amounts of time can develop into some wonderful work! With hand piecing it is easy to stop in the middle of a seam and then return to complete the seam later, you won’t have lost your place or dropped stitches. Imagine doing that with your machine piecing.

• Use small plastic containers with little compartments for storage. Zippered sandwich bags can hold your cut and prepared fabrics. Label them with block names for easy reference.

Here are two of the projects we'll be working on:

Petal Power Block

Black Diamond Block