What is hand quilting?

What's this? What are you doing? People kept asking me this week, on my breaks and lunches. Hand quilting I said. What is it, why are you doing this?

                                   I'll probably use this fabric to make myself a little pouch to carry some of                                                my current patchwork project pieces, to sew a little on the go.

I started quilting a bit of printed cotton and synthetic felt together as a practice before making a real piece and I kind of got hooked haha. But really, what is quilting and what are it's uses?

Quilting is a sewing technique, that can be done by hand or by machine, that serves to join usually two or three layers of fabric. Generally, you would have a top layer of decorative fabric, sometimes a patchwork of colourful cottons, sometimes just a plain piece of fabric. Underneath this one, you would find a layer of insulating material called "batting" (it can be wool, cotton or synthetic material). Finally, there would be another layer of plain fabric to "sandwich" the batting.

These layers of fabric would be put one over the other and sewn together either by machine or by hand. If the piece is quilted by hand, it would be mounted on a quilting frame or hoop (this is what I'm using right now, because I have a really small piece). Lots of people seems to be hand-quilting using the "running stitch" method, which means that the stitching is worked by passing the needle in and out of the fabric (producing many stitches at a time). For the moment, I prefer the "stabbing" method. It takes longer, because it produces only one stitch at a time (you have to stab your needle down the fabric, pull the thread and start again but stabbing it up etc) but I prefer the look of it. It feels like I better control the size of my stitches and their direction.

Now, where would you use quilting? Often it is find in quilts, either whole cloth or patchwork blanket as I mentioned earlier. From middle age through 19th century quilting was used in clothing and bedding. Quilting is used to keep layers of fabric together. Instead of lets say, three thin blankets, you would have one thicker, warmer blanket  (easier to handle than three layers...). While quilting, one would often use patterns for the sewing lines. Instead of plain lines or waves you would find on a commercial bed cover, quilting can follow any design you'd like. So not only does it make you blanket warmer and sturdier, It also make it more elaborate and pretty. Finally, we could also say that it serve as an heritage. Passing on a quilt, to someone you love, is giving your time, love and efforts along with a beautiful and useful object.