Hand quilting

I am getting ready to hand quilt a top I finished in July. It will be my second attempt at hand quilting. The wool applique top I made in 2018 was the first. After many starts and stops, I finally settled on "big stitch" format for that one, and once it got going, I was surprised at how quickly it quilted up. That is this quilt:

(The images will enlarge if you click on them)

My current top was finished in July. It took a year of hand stitching the turned applique in cotton. The pattern is called "Woodland Creatures", designed by Quilt by Rosemary.

My take on it (almost the same as original):

It was a very enjoyable project. Lots of motivation the first 3 or 4 months. I worked the blocks before working the inner top and bottom borders, followed by the side borders, and finally, the outside top and bottom. I can't say there was ever a lack of motivation, but by the time I reached the side borders, I was slowing down a little, maybe. The borders are long (quilt is 80" x 100") and each border is mirrored from the center, and mirrored from the opposite border meaning that each motif is repeated four times. I was relieved to get beyond the side borders. But never a dull moment.

Like I mentioned, I'm going to hand quilt it and want to get finer stitches on this one. To that end, I watched a series of very good videos on YouTube by a woman who grew up Amish. Her name is Esther Miller. The 6 part series starts here:

I especially like that she is conscientious of the possibility of hand/wrist injury (something I'm always aware of). I ordered one of her needle slides and a thread puller, and I'm using a thimble (that almost fits) that I found at the thrift shop. I may end up forking over $$ for one of her custom sized thimbles.

So I've been practicing small stitching and it has--up till yesterday--been majorly frustrating. I recall the week/week-and-a-half of frustration when I was learning to spin wool (I learned on a drop spindle), and saying to myself many times, "If ... can do this, I'm confident I can too!" And by end of the week two, I'd pretty much gotten it. Learning small stitch quilting is worse than that. Oh my goodness, it's been hair pulling frustration. But perseverance is paying off.

Something happened yesterday by 'accident '--after many, many attempts--that shed some light on the mystery. I discovered that where my needle is placed against the thimble makes all the difference in the world, and it opened the door to more successful stitches. Yay! Now I'm practicing on consistency and feel I'm almost ready to start on the quilt. But first, I also need to practice quilting in different directions. Right to left is proceeding well now, curved lines are OK'ish, Top to bottom needs a little practice. I haven't practiced Bottom to top but suspect it will be a challenge similar to top to bottom. Left to right is awkward right now.

Also, before I start quilting I need to decide on a pattern(s)!

In this photo of my practicing, I've circled the latest bit of stitching and it is in the color I will use on this quilt. It's been good to practice with contrasting thread, though. It really highlights inconsistencies! (Ignore the mess on the far right, I was practicing an embroidered bullion stitch--quite unsuccessfully.)

With my set of tools: