Originally Posted by Shelley

Since you are used to hand quilting, I can see where the traveling lines in the baptist fans could bother you. But to do a baptist fan, on the LA, without traveling, would take your price to custom, which is what you didn't want to do. Your quilter did a great job with those travels. It's not always easy to get them right on top of each other.

When working with a LA quilter, communication is so important. Knowing your dislikes is just as important as your likes. If you don't like feathers or flowers, let her know that.

Hand quilting is not like machine quilting, and machine quilting is not like hand quilting. Some of our techniques mimic hand quilting, but we have to have a way to travel from block to block. For example, quilting a square block 1/4" away from the seams is something that a hand quilter can easily do. For machine quilting, we have two choices, quilt that 1/4" away, and have a start and stop in the block OR, we can do a continuous curve, going from corner to corner with a gentle curve and ending up in the starting corner and able to move to the next block. The effect is the same, but it is different to someone who is used to hand quilting. The first quilt I had machine quilted was the first time I even saw the continuous curve, and frankly, I didn't like it. After a couple of quilts, I grew to love the movement that those curves did to a quilt full of straight lines.

Please don't let this discourage you from trying a LAer again. As with any relationship, communication is the key.