Innovative Hand Applique, Piecing and Quilting Without Pain with Liuxin Newman

Welcome to my thimbles:

Perfect Hand Quilting without Pain is a quilting thimble away from you!

Well, it's been a long time since I had the painful finger. If you came for my wonder thimbles to hand quilt and hand piece (American piecing method to load multi-stitches using the cone thimbles), or for our old style silver thimbles for applique or embroidery (single stitch), here are answers to the most frequently asked questions from quilters and sewers: 

What is the difference between the old style thimble and the new Cone thimbles?

As you see on Simply Quilts, our old style thimble with bigger and deeper dimple placed lower down on the ball part of the finger tip - by holding needle better instead of just used to push needles like traditional thimbles, it changed the way quilters hold needles by releasing both the upper thumb and the underfinger from pushing needle (some call it feeling the needle tip coming through) tip back against shallow dimples (so they don't fly off). Without pricking the under fingers and upper thumb, quilters no longer suffer pricking pains, the releasd fingers can no fold quilt WAY in front of the needle tip to make loading multi-stitches physically easy! At the same time, folding quilt FAR AWAY from the needle tip reduced the pressure on needle tip so needles no longer bent or broken - that is why using my thimbles, quilters not only have not pains on their hands but the needles no longer suffer too. In turn, quilters no longer need to use short and thick needles when you no longer break needles... Another bonus coming with no pricking of under finger is you can make the quilt VERY LOOSE in the quilting frame to reduce stress on your own hands and the needles!

After Alex Anderson introduced my thimbles and the techniques on Simply Quilts, I realised how many hand quilters suffering the pains. Following the goal to improve control over our sewing needles, and lessons I learned about fingers through fitting thousands and thousands of fingers, I finally perfect the quilting thimble design in my new Cone Thimble which was successfully patented in both Australia and US after 5 years of rigid examinations by both Patent Offices. Our cone thimble is no doubt the very best for multi-stitching - load more than 10 stitches at a time using one big dimple to hold the needle without the help of another finger. Later, I saw some Japanese quilters using my cone thimbles to do sashiko stitching (decorative long running stitch), I realised their way of using my thimbles would be great to do American piecing! 

Can Thimblelady's  painfree quilting method  be used for thumb quilting?

Absolutely! Thumb quilting isn't a different method from finger quilting. The difference is in the direction of quilting. Using a thumb thimble on the thumb, one can easily quilt away from your own body; Quilting with a cone thimble on the finger, it is much more natural to quilt towards your own body. Some asked me if I can use the thimbles to quilt side ways, everybody can. But at what cost? Quilting sideways (meaning left to right or vice versa) with either a finger or a thumb will require twisting at least one joint (twists, elbow or shoulder, even back and neck). The cost of not following the natural way your body moves is repeatitive injury of the joints. I'd suggest you turn your quilt frame so you don't have to twist yourself! The later is much easier and natural.

I can find thumb thimbles on your site, but why can't I find information on how to thumb quilting method? 

As mentioned above, thumb quilting isn't a method. In my teaching book and DVD, I walk you through the quilting technique by showing you how to coordinate the fingers. Once you learned how to quilt with a finger, then you can watch me demo quilting with all the rest fingers and thumb - thumb is just push needle away from your body! That is all. 

When you quilt a small quilt only, you can either quilt with a finger or a thumb as small quilt is very easy to turn. Only when you qult a large quilt, that is when a thumb thimble together with a finger thimble will make life SO MUCH easier to cover both directions of quilting pattern leaving turning the large quilt to the very minimal!

I have arthritis, can your thimbles fit me?

Yes. It depends on how bad your arthritis is and how deformed your finger is. Our cone finger thimble design is very forgiving in fitting - taking into the most important lesson I learned fitting the old style thimbles! Get a slight larger cone thimble so you can let it to cover your top knuckle - this will ease the pains from "constant knocking on your swallen knuckle" by a tiny thimble - you know what I mean. 

When your top knuckle is too deformed for the largest cone finger thimble we have, you can get a small thumb cone thimble - as we have discovered the swallen arthritical finger usually turned into a thumb shape!

Can I really learn to hand quilt? What if I fail? 

My thimbles and technique are based on physical logics. If you have quilted the hard and painful way, you are only changing to an easier way. If you have not hand quilted at all, it should be even easier because you don't have bad habits to unlearn! However, my thimbles and technique are best vehicle and road map, YOU, the quilter, are the driver! If you determine to rid the pains and enjoy hand quilting like one of us, DO IT!

If you need a safety net, go to our Learning Package! 

Thimblelady's patented Cone Thimbles come in plastic, stainless steel and sterling silver.

Which thimble to best for you?

Plastic is fine for those who don't do a lot of quilting and for those just getting used to it. Its low cost and free shipping allows you to quilt without pain right now without waiting for your budget big enough to pemper your finger with a silver or stainless steel cousins of the plastic version. It lasts a few years.

But if you want the Queen of thimbles and finance permits, choose a silver or at least a steel (also shipping free). Silver is almost the strongest of the precious metals, though less strong than stainless steel.

When making your choice between silver and stainless steel, here are some factors to consider: 

- If you want a thimble that will last you a lifetime, get our stainless steel cone thimble. It will never wear out! It also comes with a life guarantee (because we know it will last the distance!). 

- If you love the lustre, patina and human skin-friendly touch of a natural product, choose silver. Our secret recipe of hardening the thimble makes our silver thimble harder yet lighter - as quilting thimbles need to withstand the constant punch backs from steel needles more than any other sewing, many thimbles are made chunky for durability. The chunckiness and heavier weight made it harder to quilt well just like walk in platform shoes.

Although our silver thimbles will wear through one day for those who quilt a lot, it is the strongest and most durable of silver thimbles in the market. And it is the most nimble thimbles! It should last a lot longer for quilters who don't quilt a lot or quilt soft quilts as recommended by Thimblelady or use the thimble for hand piecing or sashiko (decorative running stitches from Japan).  They have two different shapes: a shape for fingers and a shape for thumbs.

Quilters who own both the steel thimble and the silver say they can immediately tell the difference in feel (though not in performance) between the precious and non-precious metal.

To watch how the thimble and technique work in motion, click here to watch the video!

See the photos below: no touching of needle tip.

 

Sizing? You need a circumference of your finger or thumb: Wrap a piece of dental floss around the widest part of the top knuckle (closest to your finger tip) of your finger or thumb. Make a mark with a fine marking pen where two strands of floss pass each other. Unwrap the floss and measure the distance between the to dots to get the circumference of your finger and thumb. Click on select a size/circumference to find the thimble closest to your measurement. Email Liuxin through Contact Us when you are in doubt.  

Still confused? Watch the video demo on how to size your finger.