I'm surprised at the number of quilters who make lots of lovely quilt tops but don't finish them
I know here in Australia sending it out to be professionally quilted is expensive.( A friend pays upwards of $200.00 to have hers done.)
I can understand if the quilt is to go into a show but when they are made with love for family,friends or whoever why not finish them and give them to people to use?
I'm not sure how many quilts I've made (somewhere near 100) but I machine quilt them all. They don't have to be fancy, straight stitching or a fancy stitch from our machines works well.
This is not a judgment just wondering why so many quilts that are lovingly made languish on a shelf or in a cupboard when someone could be enjoying them.

I agree, I can't afford to send all mine out. After the holidays I've got 2 to quilt. I'm not great but I will do my best. I think the more I do the better I will get. I won't know unless I get in there and do it. Happy Quilting!

It would be wonderful if we finished our tops by getting them quilted and ready to use and enjoy. But I think we get excited about a new pattern and fabrics and can't wait to start another top.

I just don't like to quilt in the summer so I piece all summer and quilt them all winter. Unless someone needs one right away.

I'd love to send them out because with my small amount of space it's a chore to do the quilting. I can't afford it though-I have all my money tied up in fabric and patterns. lol

I think that what bobbielinks said is right. we might have an attention span problem. hehe I finish mine mostly because I don't have lots of fabrics that I can use to turn into more quilt tops. well at least for now. can't wait to have a stash to rely on.

I pretty new at this so I don't have a fabric stash either. I have gotten carried away at purchasing several different projects. I didn't used to understand how some had different projects going at the same time. But I now have two different tops I'm working on both for Christmas presents and another top that's done just waiting to be quilted. I want to do free motion on the one that if finished but haven't done it before so not sure what I'll do but I will do them myself, can't afford to send them to anyone. The point in beginning to quilt was to do it all myself.

I try to do a quilt from start to finish. I only have one that I need to quilt (don't like it anymore, so it's outta sight, outta mind)
Believe it or not, my favorite thing to do is the binding. Don't know why either.

I like to do the binding also. It is really relaxing for me. I do mine machine on the front and hand on the back. the back part is what I really like to do. mostly because I can take it anywhere or work on it when the kids are up and playing nicely with each other.

I do all of mine from start to finish. I mainly quilt for my own pleasure and if I give someone a quilt and they like it, that's nice too. Some of them turn out better than others. I haven't mastered FMQ but still do it and my SITD sometimes is off too. Sometimes I have a few things "in the works" but I like to finish things too. Just the past week I finished a baby quilt except for a little bit of binding left to sew on, a table runner, and the scrap quilt I talked about in a new thread starting "Experiment...". Now I'm working on a braid quilt. I saw the "method" on quiltville and am using scraps. And I finally found something I don't like to do - bury the threads! I don't like the way backstitching looks sometimes, so just leave them long and then bury them when done. Tedious!!