Lobster

I think that depends to a slight degree on the intended use of the quilt, but I'd basically agree with that. Art quilts only really need to sit there and look pretty. For other quilts, sturdiness becomes more of an issue, one that increases in priority as you move from, say, an adult bedspread to a child's quilt to a quilt which will need to hold up to hospital washing machines.

One of the reasons why I am only making charity quilts to be used for fundraising is that I hand-sew everything. Hand-sewing is strong enough for most uses, but charities which provide quilts for hospitals quite rightly insist on machine sewing. It also means that it takes me substantially longer to make any quilt. Add that to the sky-high materials prices in the UK, and I can't just put together a nice cheap baby quilt in a day like I so often see people doing here. I wish I could, I think there's a big place for that sort of quilt just as there is for the fussier, competition-winning, every-stitch-must-look-perfect-or-the-judges-will-hate me type of quilt.

It's one of the reasons why I love quilting: it's so flexible, it embraces all levels of skill and many different uses for the quilts, and all of these quilts are good and are beautiful. The quilt I have received the most thanks for is a very quick tied quilt I made with two pieces of gaily patterned flannel, where the most work I did was to embroider the baby's name on one side (and even then, I probably spent more time choosing pretty threads and a nice font than I did on the hand embroidery). I get thanked for it almost every time I speak to the family (it went to my best friend's kid sister's baby), and apparently it's used every day. Making that quilt, and the feedback I get from it, really made me rethink my approach to how fussy I am about making slow, elaborate quilts. I still love making those, but I was perhaps sinking a little into the mad perfectionism that is so common with quilters, and it was really liberating to realise that *any* quilt will usually be wonderful, especially if it's made with affection and a good eye for colour. Making something "quick and dirty" can be liberating to the point of being surprisingly useful artistically.

And to cheer everyone up, or because any excuse will do, here is the baby in question enjoying his new quiltlet! Beat that for total and utter cuteness.