Hand Stitching on Sunday #3

Did you see the fantastic blog post "It's Not My Fault" by Ami Simms?!? It is brilliantly written and so hilarious! And very appropriate to my hand applique challenge this past week. 
The challenge - hand applique a not-yet-born baby's name on a commission quilt. I didn't machine applique the letters just in case they need to be removed if the baby turns out to be girl, or they don't go with the name they have chosen once they see the baby (we did a last minute name switcheroo with my son once we saw him!)

I have really tried to like hand applique. I took classes from amazing teachers Becky Goldsmith and Valerie Hearder to learn the proper techniques. I love the look of applique quilts, but I just can't seem to do it! The problem for this quilt was that it seemed like I had to scrunch up the whole quilt in my left hand to stitch down the letters using my right hand. Does anyone use a hoop to hand applique on large pieces? Would that work?
Anyway, after reading Ami's post, I realized what my problem is - I don't know how to project blame properly! Clearly the cause of the difficulty was because of the thimble (too loose and sweaty) and the weather (way too hot). 
Phew...I feel better now that I know it's not MY fault!! LOL
Thanks to all the hand stitchers who posted on last week's link up. You did a great job linking up to your specific hand work post so that we can easily find it. It was great fun to see what yours hands are creating! 
If you have been doing hand work this week, show us what you're up to.