To Quilt or not to Quilt
 

A 92 year old lady brought me this exquisite quilt top today that she made entirely of men's ties. She outlined them in the Brier stitch or "feather stitch" to showcase their beauty. The quilt top drapes over the sides of my King size bed and almost touches the floor on both sides. She didn't know if she wanted it handquilted or tied. Help us make up our mind for sure which would be the best route. We have looked it over and felt it's personality and we feel that it should be tied with embrodiery thread down the centers of each piece so as not to take away from the delicate stitching. What do you think? Or would you go an entirely different route and send it out to the longarm?

I can be of no help, having never tied one, but this is one beautiful quilt. I am sure there are some experts out there who will know how to advise you.

I would tie tie quilt.

I don't know how big a LA machine is but the way you talk it must be about 120" and isn't that the max of most machines. I bet this weights 40 - 50 lbs. It would be beautiful to quilt inside each piece and not cross the sides but the work on that would be unreal and expensive. But for this one it would be well worth it. I don't think personally LA ing would take away from her stitches. I would say quilt it plus quilting it would help to stabilize it more also.
It is a strikingly beautiful top. I would love to see it finished.

I don't know, but it is a really pretty quilt. :)

What a fabulous quilt! However you decide to finish it, will only add to it's beauty!
Maureen

I agree with Goosepoint ... my first inclination was to highlight the stitching already in place by outlining those stitches in a neutral color, or mimic the color she used in her stitches.

I would tie it, having tied a lot of quilts. Most everyone I have seen like this are tied.

I'm no help other than to say HOW BEAUTIFUL!

I agree that longarming is probably not the way to go, but tying it seems like it wouldn't be as stable (and with those fabrics, it might be important). If you could hand-quilt about a quarter inch away from the feather stitching, it seems like it wouldn't take away from the feather stitching at all (especially if you were careful with color choice for the quilting thread), and would still have the stability of quilting over tying.