Well, the way I look at it is that you have the antique and the modern together. If it inhances the pattern in the antique quilt, and that is what someone wants done, machine or long arm quilting, then why not. I have a feeling that if my grandmother were still alive and saw one of her quilts quilted like this she would be ecstatic. I think that, although she did nothing but hand quilting, she would love the way this type of quilting made all of her hard work of piecing stand out.
There was a discussion on here a while back where somone thought that quilts should not be aloud in a quilt show since they were put together by someone on a sewing machine and quilted on a long arm. It sparked pages and pages of controversy, so I guess opinions will really differ, but look at the antique quilts that Eddie has taken and quilted...now they are saved and now they will last longer and their beauty is well enhanced.
On the other hand, DH says that if they are quilted on a long arm or by machine then they are no longer antique. I say that in that case they are no longer antique if they are quilted at all,even by hand, because no matter how they are quilted, by hand, machine or long arm, they are being quilted in 2010, not 1900 or whatever, so what is the difference? In that case they can't be quilted at all??!! The only difference I see is that hand quilting was the thing back then, but there is still the question of the date which it was quilted. Quilting is quilting in general. Although some is prettier and some prefer one over the other, I see nothing wrong with one over the other, I love all quilting and they type and way it is done can make or break, I am sure....OK...whose next? And, by the way....that quilt is sooooo beautiful!!!!