ginnie6

so far all I've done is hand quilting. I am one day going to try my hand at machine quilting.....maybe on dd's quilt she has made. The ones I've done so far though are gifts that were made with blocks my grandmother did years ago..by hand so that is how I've done the ones I made and that's how I quilted them.

earthwalker

I am an EPP, and have done mostly handquilting. My hands are sometimes not up to it these days so am developing a closer working relationship with my sewing machine and learning to machine piece and quilt. I figured if I stuck with all handwork I would never get all the projects on my wish list started, let alone finished.

Since joining this board, I have seen so many beautiful examples both hand and machine quilted....all are exceptional in their own way...I find handquilting meditative but I am getting a real kick out of using my machine. I couldn't imagine giving up hand work as I love to embroider and embellish...so I think both are skills to hone. The main thing is do what your heart desires and keep the passion alive, whichever method you use.

MNQuilter

I have only hand quilted or tied quilts. Any time I have tried to machine quilt, it looks terrible and I can't FMQ to save my life. It takes longer but I feel like I have more control with a needle in my hand! Now I will admit the I haven't had to do a large quilt yet so we will see what happens at that point.

Sandy1951

Klue,

By thick stitches do you mean they're thick because of using thicker threads? What exactly do you mean by spaced stitches? Do you mean the rows are spaced farther apart than when you machine quilt? Or do you mean the stitches themselves are spaced farther apart? Just curious.

OdessaQuilts

I much prefer hand quilting to machine quilting. However, I believe there is a place for each. Whenever I want a piece to be done quickly, and if I know it will be worn to death and washed a lot (like for my grandsons), then off it goes to the longarmer to be quilted.

I do not like to machine quilt myself; premarily because I do not yet have that skill, I think. I have never been taught to do this, and I also find that I do not have the skill with the machine and feet I have at my disposal. I would like to learn it, but I really do prefer the look and feel of a hand-quilted quilt. There is nothing like it.

I also do admire a well-done machine quilt. But they lay differently and hang differently. There is more a stiffness to them, in my opinion.

This is a good question, especially as we all do different things and have different skills.

Eddie

I do only machine quilting and do it on my sewing machine. It's all about time to me, I don't have the patience for hand quilting, as beautiful as I think it is.

kluedesigns

yes, when i say thick i mean i can use thicker threads even embroidery floss.

when i say "spacing" i referring to the distance between each stitch.

when you machine stitch each stitch is right next to the one behind it and the one in front of it.

when you hand stitch thats not the case, you can leave a space in between each stitch. the distance between each stitch is totally up to you.

i'll do many rows of this type of hand stitching. its great from providing texture and shading in a design.

roselady

I have only hand quilted, and I love doing it. In fact I think I will always have something in the process of being hand quilted. The problem is time. There are so many more quilts I want to make than what I would have time to hand quilt. I am getting ready to take a quilt to a long armer for the first time, I'm a little nervous about turning it over to someone else. I only recently discovered that my old (23 years old) bernina will actually work to quilt. It has a darning foot and the feed dogs will drop. So I have played around with FMQ a little bit, but with the little bed that it has I doubt that I will ever do much more than a baby size quilt on it.

Sandy1951

Thanks, Klue. I appreciate your clarification. I like the idea of using both machine and hand quilting in the same quilt.

amma

I only do machine quilting, my hands just can't take doing it by hand... I love the look of hand quilting and I am very envious of those who do it :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: