I know that there are no quilt police, so I can go ahead and do what I want. But I would like to take advantage of the collective wisdom here and see what others have tried and what the results were.

Has anyone here mixed hand and machine quilting in the same piece? Can you comment on how that worked out?

So here is the story. I am a new quilter, and have only finished two lap-sized quilts. I had sewn garments on and off for a long time, and many of those skills transferred to the piecing part, but the quilting part is a brand new thing for me. I finished piecing a top which will be a Christmas gift for my daughter. For a variety of reasons, I do not want to have someone else do the quilting, but I really want to do that part myself as well. I plan on just straight-line quilting an overall grid for most of the quilt, which is doable given my skill level. But I wanted to quilt a small cat's paw in each of the four corners. I have been practicing FMQ and the stippling is not horrible. I am very unhappy, however, with my ability to following even the simplest stencil, such as the cat's paw that I want to do. On the other hand, my hand quilting is not nearly as horrible, so I am considering hand-quilting the paw in each corner.

Has anyone had done this and can you comment on the results?

I have never done this, because I can't sew by hand anymore. That being said I have seen a couple of beautiful quilts that people have both hand quilted and machine quilted. I got a call recently inquiring if I would machine quilt after she hand quilted certain parts.

it will look just fine and be all YOU, go for it! :thumbup:

Like you said, no quilt police here, so I think your hand-quilted kitty paws will be the perfect finishing touch!

BTW....the quilt in your avatar is gorgeous!! :thumbup:

I just did that exact thing to the quilt for my DD. I straight quilted with my machine on some parts and then went around and stitched hearts in all the blank small odd shapped parts. Washed it twice and I just really loved the way it came out. Lots of mistakes with the machine straight stitching, but the hearts are really sweet and neat looking. I like the way the fabric puffs up after hand quilting. I know that DD will love the quilt because I never finish things, so she will be so proud of me. And will love her quilt. Don't forget to add a special label to her quilt. My label looked a little uky but she will love it...Blessings

I've done it. I had a huge, over-queen sized applique quilt which I originally envisioned handquilting -- since it's all hand applique. But reality set in, and I was not enjoying the handquilting process. So even though I had portions done by hand, I switched to machine and just finished it up. I'm pleased with it.

I say go for it. It will look fine, and you're spending your time on the key style element -- the paw print, while getting the functional, structural grid done quickly by machine.

RST

I have mixed both in much the same way you described. I did an overall straight grid by machine and hand quilted a heart in each block. I have also done it with a baby quilt. Straight line machine quilting with my walking foot and the bear was hand quilted. Here is a link to the bear one.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-25770-1.htm

Regarding the cat paws. I recently did a childs quilt with cat paw stencils that I FMQ. I did a FMQ stipple around the cat paws and it hid a multitude of errors when following my original stencil, it also made the paw prints stand out quite nicely. Here is a link to that quilt.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-54829-1.htm

I intend to do that with my weight loss quilt. I want to hand quilt the lilies in the big squares and machine quilt some straight areas.

i have a number of quilts that contain both hand and machine quilting, they are beautiful, and i see no reason to not do it that way if that is what you want. i had one that i hand quilted around all of my hand embroidery in the center of the quilt but the borders are machine quilted. i have one that was hand embroidered (as the quilting) then finished with the machine. lots of the (big- award winning- internationally known quilters) all use both techniques in their quilts. go for it

Same here, I even combine all that with my computer too. It all blends together nicely and keeps them guessing!---Dave B.

I do both on the same quilt. I enjoy hand-quilting. Believe it or not, hand-quilting goes much faster than machine quilting. I think it is because I have more control with my hands.

I've always been a hand quilter, for economical reasons, and my hands are starting to go now so I'm sure I would have done the same thing you are doing. I'd save my hands for the paws and decorative stickes.

Your DD with love all the thought and love you put into her special quilt.

Andie :-D :-D :-D

I did both machine & hand quilting on my first full size bed quilt. I intended to hand quilt the whole thing, but I didn't realize how many seams I would have to quilt across.
It was an irish chaine so I did both types of quilting & it looked fine.

Sounds workable to me. Go for it.

It's YOUR quilt so do what is comfortable for you!

I mix hand and machine quilting all the time. Once I had a center stencil that I handquilted and then stippled the borders on a baby quilt. It all works out. Like you, I don't like to give up the control on my quilt by sending it out to be quilted by someone else. As my quilt teacher used to say "it's your quilt....do what you want with it!"

Combining the two styles will make it totally yours, which is the most important. Like you, piecing it then sending it off to be machine quilted by someone else just isn't the same. It will be truly loved because it's your creation.

I used to do hand piecing and hand quilting. More often than not, I was told what beautiful machine stitching I did! Now I use the machine.....might as well!!

I have mixed hand quilting and tied . I made a baby quilt with alternate blocks of teddy bears and 9 patch. I quilted the 9 patch and tied the bear with the bow like a ribbon around his neck. turned out real cute. I don't think you should be afraid to mix, after all that's what makes us creative.

Yes, I have done both in the same quilt. It works just fine....do whatever you want to do!! The ones I have done, I did hand quilting within the blocks, as they were sort of intricate, and then I did machine quilting in the sashing strips, borders, etc.

I have done both on several of my quilts - I've been happy with the results.

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to try this. Two of the three quilts are finished, and I have posted photos under "Roommate Christmas Gifts".