Traditional Hand Quilting tips

These are probably the same tips available in any number of books, but lately books on hand quilting have gotten harder and harder to find in favor of books on machine quilting (typically long-arm machine quilting), and I didn't learn from a book but mouth-to-mouth, so I thought I would share some basic tips and reminders here.

If your thread starts to catch after awhile, use a shorter thread the next time. With tight weave fabrics, even the smoothest quilting thread can get frayed. Looser weaves allow longer pieces of thread.

If you are having a hard time getting the needle through the fabric, find a thinner needle. They are easier to break but work better while they last and a fractional difference can translate to a significant difference in ease of sewing.

Hand quilting patterns can be complex or simple: complex takes lots more time, too simple and widely spaced can lead to bunched up batting:
Cotton battings should be quilted with spacing no larger than about three inches unless they have a strong surface (and those will be stiffer and harder to quilt)
Polyester battings are typically less inclined to bunch but are also poofier and should probably have stitching spaced no more than 4 inches apart.
The spacing need not be even or consistent: alphabets and numbers on baby quilts, quilting that follows pictures are all allowed: just watch for large areas with no stitching and fill with appropriate patterns and shapes.

Shorter needles allow for more closely spaced stitching, especially desirable if stitching will stand out visibly (e.g., white on a dark, plain background, large areas of plain fabric, closely spaced stitched patterns, etc.). On the other hand, if the quilting is simple and merely intended to keep the quilt layers together for the duration, a longer needle will allow more stitches at a time and quicker progress.