Originally Posted by katiebear1
What do you think? I was in my lqs the other day and one of the ladies that works there was binding a quilt . It was really beautiful. I asked her how she got her fmq so even and all. She said she used the quilting machine and led me over to a large machine that was just happily quilting away all on its own. I am a new quilter (about 7 months) and I do it all by machine, and I consider that still being hand made After all we don't cook over an open fire. But somehow programing a machine and turning it on seems like cheating.
This was tough for me but I have done a major mental re-arrangement and attitude adjustment on this. 2 years ago I had the privilege of joining a quilting chapter in the retirement community where I live and so many ladies I've met here used to hand quilt but can't anymore for a variety of reasons. Some can cut but can't sew at all so they have someone else do the piecing and someone else do the machine quilting. They hate it but it's the only way they can continue to be part of our quilting world. It made me realize that could happen to me too one day down the road so I'd better not be judgemental or critical. I started out doing everything by hand but after having to reconstruct my first two hand pieced quilts vowed never again and now machine piece and hand quilt. That's taking a modification now as I'm beginning to learn to machine quilt but still do the detail quilting by hand so who knows what I'll do in the future. We are just plain lucky to have a variety of choices available to all of us so we can continue to enjoy our quilting however we approach it. The machine quilted quilts are gorgeous and I sure can't argue with that but I personally do prefer the lovely, soft, cuddly hand quilted ones the most. My idea of cheating is when I buy a printed panel and hand quilt it but I also always dress them up with pieced borders. Cheating? Due to where I live, it's necessary for me to respect the choices of others and encourage them to continue to participate with us as quilting is so good for all of us. I too wish they could continue to enjoy the hand quilting but you know, I've also meant many who only touch a needle to put a new one into their quilting machines - they will not hand sew anything for any reason and that's ok too.
Patty