Originally Posted by
joe'smom
How much time would you say this would have taken using a DSM as compared to a long arm? Would you have attempted this same quilting on a DSM? I mentally separate DSM quilting from longarm quilting because I understand it is more physically difficult to do a comparable amount of quilting by shoving a quilt around under a needle and through a harp than it is to move a needle over a stationery quilt. If this were not the case, why would so many people be switching from DSMs to long arms?
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There are people who are proficient, absolutely amazing at DSM quilting or quilting on a sit down machine with extended throat. I encourage you to look up the work of Diane Gaudynski DSM quilter extraordinaire. And also Janet Stone who has won many major awards (Houston BOS for example as well as numerous BOS for AQS) who also does all her quilting on DSM.
And probably the most stunning example of DSM quilts, America Let it Shine by Sherry Reynolds.
They have mastered quilting on a DSM and I suspect if they duplicated my quilting in Agave Garden they would improve on it and quilt it in the same amount of hours, possibly less.
The reason many people go to LA isn't time savings, it is their brains just aren't wired to "push the paper" but to "push the pencil". I am one of those people. My struggles with DSM quilting wasn't so much wrestling the bulk under the throat it was movement itself. I just could not make my brain work that way so everything I did on DSM was herky jerky and didn't look pretty and I was tense and simply didn't enjoy the process at all. It wasn't the bulk because I had the same issues with small items like table runners as I did with a 60 x 60 quilt. Plus I hated the basting part with a white hot passion. Time savings (other than not having to baste any more) I don't think is the main motivator of so many people switching to LA it is enjoyment of the process.
The first time I tried a LA at a show it was like Nirvana for me. I and the quilt and the machine were one and had archived total enlightenment!
This is what I was meant to do!
You are correct all 3 are different art forms and I really think the major shows are starting to recognize that. AQS appears to have separate categories now for hand, sit down machine (although they don't differentiate between large throat or small) and stand up machine and some shows even separate it further into stand up hand guided and stand up computer driven. Which is completely appropriate IMHO as they also use totally different skill sets.