Originally Posted by
dgreen
Does anyone else feel this way? I am a perfectionist and am so inspired by the art of quilting; however, my struggle is with the actual quilting part. After working so hard to piece a quilt together, it feels like such a letdown to stitch in the ditch on my little sewing machine. I have tried machine quilting on my home machine, but it is very limiting, and just can't look as good as I aspire it to look. Does anyone else feel like "what's the point of quilting if I don't have a longarm?", and what area do you focus on to substitute for the fancy quilting done on these machines. I don't mean to sound like a whiner, I just need another way to think about this. Maybe i should focus on hand-quilting....
I agree with others that answered you. It takes LOTS of practice. I did buy myself a good machine with a large throat area. I made the sales person in the shop roll up a king size quilt to make sure it would fit so I could quilt any size. My other tips are set up tables around your sewing area so the quilt does not fall over the sides. That pulls and can really mess with tension. When I quilt a large piece I know my sewing room will be tight until I'm finished. Good luck.