foxxigrani

I agree, but then I am with some of you, to much quilting takes away from the piece. You look at the quilting instead of the quilt. I personally don't like a lot of quilting. But to each his own(or her). As far as the leopard, yes I think also SID is perfect for that piece, and may I add that is beautiful, and a beginner? Wow...

Rita

quiltmom04

I think that there needs to be a balance between the quilting and the use. The more quilting there is, the stiffer it feels. I would think those extrodinary quilted mastrpieces would feel like a heavy piece of cardboard if really used as a cover. I think a bed quilt should have a lot less quilting to make it 'snuggly'. That being said, I'm absolutely in awe of the quilt artists like Sharon Schaumber and Diane McCuen, who can produce such fabulous work.

nana2

Just last week the Fons and Porter show which aired here on our PBS featured a Long Arm Quilter who demoed quilting that was way "over the edge" as far as I am concerned. Some where in that program I heard it took her two months to quilt her quilt. Just not for me!!!!!!

Lucy90

I'm with not quilting too much. I have seen some beautiful quilts and they are over quilted and actually hard and not soft to the touch. I would not want to cuddle up with it or even have it on a bed.

Farm Quilter

I would outline the tigers and some of the leaves in the tiger squares. In the blue, I would copy some of the flowers with leaves. All the rest I would do in the ferny leaves shown on the fabric. I frequently take the designs in the fabric and translate them into the quilting I do, both on my own quilts and on customer's quilts.

When I quilt for customers, I will suggest different designs for their quilts if I think what they are asking for will detract from the beauty of the piecing. Most of my customers now just give me a price point and let me do what I want. It's nice to be trusted, sometimes scary since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my goal is to always enhance the beauty of their piecing with my quilting. I'll be the first to admit, I love McTavishing!!! Rarely do it on customer quilts because it is very time consuming and expensive for them and uses a TON of thread! Wholecloth quilting is the time for my quilting to shine, on pieced quilts the quilting should just let the piecing shine!

Maride

I think each quilt "speaks" for itself. Many designs are made to use a lot of quilting, like if there are big empty blocks separating pieced ones. There a quilter can demonstrate her abilities. Other quilts have such complicated piecing that minimal quilting is required to concentrate on the piecing. I believe that if the quilt is well made, you look at it and notice the piecing, and then have your eye drawn to the quilting, unless is a whole cloth, of course.

Let's not forget that quilting is an art, no matter if it is done on a domestic or a long arm. It is almost like drawing, but harder. What I frown upon is long arm quilted items done with computarized machines, where all you do is mark the boundaries and go to lunch, competing in the same category as a regular long armer, who made hers free hand or marked.

I always prefer to quilt rather than piecing, but I do it on my domestic machine.

Shelley

LA quilter here - and just my opinion. I'll duck and run when done!

If a quilt is stiff after quilting, the problem is the combination of the quilting AND they type of batting used. You can 'quilt to death' wool batting and it won't get stiff.

Some quilts require lots of quilting because of piecing issues. If a quilt isn't square and straight, we can sometimes get them there but it takes a lot of 'controlling' stitches. I've had quilts come in with 5 extra inches of border - on each side. I can disguise that, but I have to guilt it a lot to make it look like it's supposed to.

The quilting is supposed to be a balancing act. If I have a heavily-pieced-busy-fabrics quilt in front of me, I can't add much in the way of quilting to that quilt - so I usually suggest an allover. If I have a quilt with lots of blank spaces, we can do some really cool stuff - with the customer's permission.

I have a group of ladies that piece in the studio one day a week, and sometimes they make the same quilt. One lady always wants 'less quilting' - until she sees what her friend gets with 'go for it'!!

We just had our county fair. There were some beautifully pieced quilts with quilting on them that just made me want to cry. These quilt could have been award winners, but the poor quilting and lack of quilting detracted from the top.

I'm ducking and running now!!

sjhughson

For those of you who do not send out your quilts or LA your quilts, you may want to sign on to a couple of the LA lists/boards. It will open your eyes to the LA quilting world whether you want to do that or not. Most of the time the customer calls the shots. The LA quilters love it when the customer says do whatever you think is best. So when looking at the quilting as over top, remember it's what the customer wanted probably. The drape of a quilt is also dependent on the batting type. It's not just the quilting. HIH Thank goodness everyone has their choices of what to do on their quilts. LOL

ledraj

I think the quilting is really beautiful and shows great skill. However, I like the old fashioned look of the quilt
puffing up between the quilting, therefore there is too much quilting on a lot of quilts I see. I prefer less quilting and more of the patchwork to be the star.

irma tapia

What is SID?