aorlflood

I want to be able to do both...

Some quilts are made to be handquilted...and some need to be machine quilted.

The one I'm doing now is for my grandson's first real bed...so I don't think hand quilting is appropriate since I'm sure it will get a lot of rough use.

I usually do about one machine quilted quilt per year so I never get really "good" at it. Usually the quilts I machine quilt are scrap or string quilts so I don't fret over how good the machine quilting is.

However, this quilt, I think, is probably one of my favorite quilts so far and I probably should have just bit the bullet and sent it out to be LA quilted.

But...I'm trying to do my quilts myself and not rely on others to do them for me. I want my quilts to be "all me". (No offense to the LA quilters on the board.)

If I hadn't spent the time on Sunday to pin baste the quilt and already have one row of blocks quilted...knowing what I know now, I'd take this quilt to a LA'er. But if I try to take out this stitching now, I know I'll put a hole in the quilt.

On top of it all...after I had done one row of blocks and was starting on the second row last night, my machine started skipping stitches. I changed my needle (even though I had put a fresh needle in at the beginning) and rethreaded the top thread but it didn't help. I rethreaded the top again and it still skipped. The only thing I didn't do was rethread the bobbin.

At that point I turned everything off and walked away last night and came and posted on here.

Before I start on the quilt again, I will rethread the bobbin.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I read and appreciated each one.

It is difficult to become a good machine quilter when you only machine quilt one quilt/year.

Luckily, I know the Fix-it Fairy! :) LOL