I have a small question to ask long arm quilters: I am a handuilter and wanted to know why, whenever I see a quilt in the magazines, so many of them are so completely covered with stitches so that the pieced top is almost an afterthought. Am i missing something? I always thought that quilting enhances the quilt top, but they seem to overwhelm them with patterns that do nothing for the quilt. I have also noticed this trend at shows. When there is so much stitching that the quilt is stiffened by them, that would seem to be too much. Thanks for allowing me to vent, but I am a bit confused. I do some machine quilting, but in the ditch, so perhaps someone could enlighten me. Thank you.