I wanted to start the new year off mastering something new. I had tried big stitch once before and was not happy with my results, so I whipped up a little top made entirely of vintage feedsack scraps for a practice piece. I used Barb Vedder's (Fun With Barb) Baptist Fan stencil which was so easy to mark. This is the first time I had marked an entire top before sandwiching it. I am a lazy quilter and do not baste for hand quilting except for around the edges to keep the batting from getting in my way. I simply start in the middle and work my way out to the edge. I tried my normal quilting thread for the first arch, but it was a bit thin looking so I switched to #8 pearl cotton. When teaching hand quilting, I like to tell my students not to worry about size as your stitches will get smaller with practice. Guess that rings true for the big stitch too because I started out with nice big stitches and they got smaller and smaller! 😂 So in conclusion, the jury is still out, but either way I need more practice!!
