I had never heard of this before either. In the "olden days" (telling my age now) quilts were hand quilted more closely together to keep the batting; cotton, wool, or whatever, from shifting when the quilt was used and washed. I do think that the closer quilting, especially machine quilting does make a quilt more stiff. Whether you think it does or not, feel one very closely quilted and one that isn't and you can feel the difference. The thread painting is an art and is beautiful, I am not putting it down, but it is not something for a well used quilt if you want softness. When I grew up my grandmother had a number of wool comforters (quilts made from wool scraps with wool batting and tied not quilted) and they were warm. I can remember having two maybe three on a bed as she had no heat in her upstairs bedrooms and believe me it got cold in 'them thar bedrooms' so you needed a lot of covering. I can remember as a little girl hardly being able to turn over under them for the weight, but they did keep one warm. For summer quilts the batting might be and old lightweight sheet blanket between the top and the backing. Nothing was ever thrown away, and of course the result today is that I am a pack rat which drives hubby up the wall. "Best keep that, we might need it some day' and the way this country is going we just might need anything we can put our hands on in the future. Fortunately only one of my two kids has my pack rat tendencies and the grandkids don't have it at all, their philosophy is "pitch it, if I need it again I'll go by a new one'. That's okay I guess if one has the financial means, but when I grew up we didn't have those financial means, it was a struggle just to live from day to day! So not sure which way is best, but pitching and going to buy new, sure fills up our landfills more quickly too. My two cents for the day. Happy quilting everyone whether it be close together or further apart.