[quote=amandasgramma]
Originally Posted by feline fanatic
I hope no one gets offended by my answer as I certainly do not mean to offend. This is just my opinion and since you asked.... I, personally, place little value on a computer generated, computer guided quilting design. What skill is needed for that? You need to know how to load the quilt on the rack, line up the needle so it starts quilting in the right spot then flip a switch. Following a panto or stencil takes more skill. While the finished product does look lovely I feel there is no talent or atristry involved and there is no singular uniqueness to the quilt. I suppose there is some talent involved in designing the quilted pattern but once it is designed no skill other then those I mentioned above is needed. I prefer free hand or hand guided.
I respectfully disagree. I have just been a recipient of a Longarm with a computer program (another long story) and have found that setting up and programming that darn computer is HARD. Getting it to do what I WANT it to do is harder than you think. Getting the 4 corners to match in size is harder than you think. Getting the 4 borders to match in size is harder than you think. I recently did a quilt with the computer program ("I have a dream" quilt posted in pictures) and I designed the stars. Getting them set in, angled just right, set in the right place and the right size took me WAY too long to ever want to do that again. Getting the triangles to look right was a downright nightmare. And using the computer still involves planning a design. I AM going to be taking classes on freestyle quilting....hoping I can accomplish a quilt that's good enough to show, but I DO feel that using the computer aspect is harder than people know. I know I was shocked how hard it is! Oh -- and I used to teach computers in my career and I used to do designs on the computer....so I felt I was about 5 steps ahead of the normal user....HAH, that dang thing had me in tears more often than not![/quo
I so agree with you........Walk in my shoes, and you'll find out what it is like.