bigsister63

I was taught that you have to meet the "integrety" of the batting when deciding how close/much to quilt. That means that each type of batting will give you the maximun area to leave between quilting stitches. Such as "recommended quilting x inches apart". The recommendation by the manufacture will prevent the batting from shifting or bunching up.

seasaw2mch

I agree that unless it's a show piece or something you just want to look at and not use to much the all over quilting is fine but for myself, I do as much as is needed to keep the thing from coming apart and get on to the next one.
Sure they look pretty but not practical in my was of thinking.

auntjo

I have been a hand piecer & hand quilter of bed quilts for a long time. Most of my quilts I consider showworthy & pieces of art because of the handwork - I think handwork is precise & it was the whole point to aim for precision, accuracy, tiny stitches, a coherent finished quilt, etc. I haven't completed hundreds of quilts either, but have made many, many special ones for my kids, when little, as they've become adults w/their own homes, g'kids, & many baby quilts, wedding quilts, graduation quilts, & other special occasion quilts for close family members & friends... But in the end they are to be used & loved for what they are - Bed quilts! (And I have tended towards old fashioned patterns w/lots of small pieces using homemade templates & scissors, one 5x24 gridded ruler & an Olfa cutter & small mat.

I don't go to a lot of shows mostly because we are so rural - but also because the last few I have traveled to, I was really disappointed at the lack of handwork. To me that is what quilting was all about. It's probably the old fashioned idea that it's something you do yourself from start to finish, most of the time w/what you have on hand - and it's not supposed to be a "hobby" that costs lots of money. To me what I see at shows is a lot of quilts that are definitely beautiful, but machine pieced & many times machine appliqued as well, or one of the many "quick methods" of applique anymore (in my day it was all needle turn, painstakingly slow hand work) & most crediting someone else w/the machine quilting - plus the whole new category of the art quilts that are thread encrusted, basically machine embroidery taking over the quilt tops. And totally done w/specifically bought "quality" quilting cottons that are way overpriced. It seems a lot of piecers don't like the whole quilting process from beginning to end. They just enjoy the process of piecing tops, lots of tops, & turn out lots of finished quilts as long as someone else is doing the quilting like it's not part of the process... It's become quite a business providing pre-packaged pattern kits or already matched up fabrics enuf to do an entire quilt - or the major motifs anyway, all the way thru someone else to quilt it! I'm not there... (if you couldn't tell...:)

Don't know if I explained that real clearly, but with that in mind...

I am also of an age where if I want to continue to quilt & go thru the process myself, I have to learn machine quilting & take advantage of the shortcuts w/machine piecing as I've been developing arthritis in my hands and will be lucky to finish off the last couple special quilts I've had in the works for years that I plan to quilt by hand. I tried my first baby quilt on the machine & came to the realization that I don't think I'd enjoy wrestling a king sized quilt thru the throat of my little White Jeans Machine. This year I have spent a lot of time on then internet researching & this summer I have purchased a short arm machine on a frame (thru Craigslist). Also found en excellent deal on a Juki TL98Q so I'm piecing w/that now & am having fun learning the basic edge to edge quilting on donation charity quilts, w/pantographs for now til I get comfortable w/free motioning without following the lines. I am at the very beginning of the very long learning curve - tho my quilting ladies of the guild I belong to are quite impressed w/the results & ready to hire me on to "do" their stacks of tops as soon as I feel like I'm ready to do that kind of work. Which really wasn't the point of learning this...

At this point, I'm putting together a couple machine pieced quilts solely for the purpose of practicing on the "longarm". Block of the months, Mystery quilts, scrap quilt patterns basically out of what I have. Not going to purchase anything major, other than when I find a pretty decent deal on fabric in colors or values I'm shy on as I haven't bought fabric in a really long time since I've been really focused on teaching jr hi for the past several years. They will be nice quilts when done - I'm too much of a perfectionist for them not to be reasonably well done, but not perfect. Close enuf that I'm not going to rip seams for a threads worth of missing a point, etc... I'm not making them w/a specific person or event in mind & am not making them w/any intention of turning out to be what I consider show-worthy quilts - tho they will probably end up being gifts. I don't think there will be too many that are simply left at stitch in the ditch, or outline stitching tho. Maybe that's part of the mindset that if we're using all these shortcuts, we should be seeing more on the quilt tops to dress them up - or make them more "arty" w/the quilting designed to set off the piecing designs by using more fillers & stippling, etc. and since machines CAN do it faster, it is possible to go back to those close lines of patterned quilting without investing the time it took for our quilting ancestors to hand quilt them in.

Well if you've gotten this far, hope this made sense. I'll get off my soapbox now & go back to practicing another pass or two on my machine/frame, & cutting pieces for a couple more 6" blocks for the Farmer's Wife Sampler BOM.

Dee

I fully agree with you. I myself do not like to see all the design. Why spend time and money making a beautiful quilt to put all that design on it. To me - less is better. :-)

Sadiemae

What all of this discussion shows is that we are really lucky. It is wonderful that everyone doesn't have to like the same quilting design, therefore we are getting new designs developed all of the time. The same with fabric and quilting toys. If we all liked the same thing it would get fairly boring after awhile. Quite often I wish I still could have a full time job because I could have a lot more fabric, thread, and toys. But on the other hand I wouldn't have so much freedom to quilt when I want to.

I do like more quilting than SID. To me, it gets kind of boring. I don't mean that I am going to micro quilt, because I don't want to work on a quilt for several months. I do plan on doing a whole cloth and that will take much more time.

Right now, I am practicing on my quilt tops to get to the point that I can quilt for a few clients. I have been told to start, but I want to feel comfortable first.

I absolutely love all kinds of feathers and I practice those quite a bit. This does make for a quilt that has a lot of quilting, but they are beautiful and I like them. I also don't have a preference for SID many times because you get boxed in and I don't like starting and stopping that many times. It is nice to outline certain parts of the pattern. I also really like McTavishing in certain areas of a quilt.

Several people have stated that LAQ have not followed their directions in quilting. When I had my quilts finished by LAQs and I know at the LQS where I live, they do work orders that state exactly what you want so there is no question as to your preferences(It also has the size of the quilt, color of thread, type of batting, and what it will cost so there are no surprises). The LAQs that I know that have been told "do what you like" will decide on a plan and check with the piecer to make sure it is something that they would like. I would never just take a quilt and do whatever without a client knowing what I was planning.

Sometimes you do have to search for someone that you "click" with as stated previously.

All in all I still think we are very lucky that we have so many choices!

quilt_happy

I agree. Sometimes too much quilting makes it stiff. I like my quilts cushiony, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I only tie my quilts.

lclang

I like a medium amount of quilting. I don't want my quilts to feel like a mattress pad! I love hand quilting but have too much arthritis in my fingers to do very much of it so have to be content to do SID or something fairly simple as I have not achieved great success with free motion quilting yet. Can't afford the long arm quilters.

GloBug

Whether I do a lot or a little quilting depends on what it will be used for, If it is to be used as a spread I prefer more stitching. If it is used as a quilt for warmth less stitching or even tied as then it snuggles around you better, For a baby I always quilt as ties can be dangerous.
Happy Quilting to all.:)

rnjoy

I think outline or mirror image is nice but if it were mine I would do some trapunto to add dimension. I have done some by just adding an extra layer of batting behind the object, outline stitch around the figure then cut off the excess and add a line of stitching around the eyes, ears and legs etc. Have fun with it.

barbrdunn

I have always been taught that there are really only two considerations necessary when determining the amount of quilting needed on a quilt. Both have been mentioned, but I would like to mention them again. The first thing that is most important, is the amount of quilting that is recommended by the batting used. That is why I like Warm and Natural. It can be quilted 8-10" apart. Some of the other batting requires quilting at 2-4". Otherwise they will not hold up to washings. Whatever amount of quilting you choose to do, it should be evenly balanced throughout the quilt. If you use heavy quilting in one area, all the other areas should be heavily stitched. If you choose to go easy on quilting, go easy over the whole quilt. Especially if it is for a wall hanging. If it is not equally quilted it tends not to hang well. I personally like to SID to stabilize the quilt, but then add a small amount of free motion quilting in the blocks and borders. If I appplique, I outline the applique. I also love to do vines as they are easiest for me and are very forgiving.