Originally Posted by
Genden
Many of the quilts at a quilt show are heavily quilted all over. They are beautiful works of art. I have been a hand quilter for a number of years, but am not able to hand quilt a couple of tops I have completed. I chose difficult patterns that took months to complete and to me are exceptional. I am planning to have a long arm quilter quilt them. The close, intricate quilting I see is beautiful, but the quilts are stiff. My hand quilted quilts are soft and drape comfortably even with a lot of quilting. I am not criticizing the intricately quilted machine quilted quilts; I think they are beautiful. I would rather have a softer quilt. Is it okay to have artistic, but less intricately quilted work done, but would it take away from the beauty of the quilt and make it look skimpy?
I don't enjoy intricate quilt designs as much in machine quilting as I do in hand quilting, though I marvel at the skill displayed. There's twice as much thread, and the effect is just different. I prefer less intricate quilting by machine, and I don't think it looks skimpy. I've seen beautiful machine quilting that, while different in style from traditional, intricate hand quilting designs, enhances a quilt just as well, just in a different way. So I wouldn't say that quilting more simply is going to take away from the beauty of your quilt, it's just going to be a different kind of beautiful than it would be if quilted by hand.
Had you considered having your quilts hand quilted by someone?