Telling you how to quilt is almost as impossible to write in words as to describe an accordion without moving your hands. One quilter says use a short needle, another holds out for a long needle, nicely curved! After trying it and observing experts it seems to me that the trick is in sewing clear around and back again like your hand could roll about the small curved units, sort of a standing on your head effect. Aye, this is the rub that may keep the quilts of today from really rivaling the ones of yester-year.
It is difficult to take small, even stitches, through three thicknesses, especially as one of these is rather heavy cotton. But the running stitches, must be even, must go clear through each time, and should be small. The position is rather awkward and tiring to one unaccustomed in the art. The left hand is held under the work, although sometimes it is the right hand under, as many expert quilters get ambidextrous. While some can quilt around and towards themselves, decidedly right-handed folks fasten the thread oftener, and always work from right to left.
No matter how beautifully you tat, embroider, play the mandolin or paint china- your first quilting will not be expert; this takes much experience and the novice cannot hope to acquire speed or perfection on her first quilt. If you try quilting continuously for several hours your fingers are apt to become very sore. A remedy for this is to dip them in hot alum water which toughens the membrane.
Thread pulled across the upper side of the right little finger often causes a blister. One way to avoid this is to wear a rubber stall over your finger, which protects it from blisters and bruises. One can only reach about a foot over the side of the frame. When you have finished some twelve inches roll up the quilt. Another section is then unrolled. This quilting and rolling and unrolling is continued until the quilt is finished. It is then taken from the frame and usually the edges bound with a bias band of material, either white or of the predominating color used in the quilt. This binding should be cut about an inch or an inch and a half wide. It is usually machine stitched on one side of the quilt then turned over and whipped down with small stitches.