Grace creates

I love feathers especially on log cabin quilts. I have been practicing feathers on my domestic machine. They do cover quite a bit of space but require practice. I like swirls and that has come easier. However, I don't like panto's on quilts

madamekelly

When I quilted by check I knew nothing of the process, so asked her what did she recommend? She showed me a panto graph that perfectly complemented my quilt and saved me a lot of money, which I don't have much of. I think they are only too perfect if they are too obviously wrong for the design of the quilt. Your statement of having "no soul" tells me your are a true artist, and as such I understand your feelings, but I just like to make hugs to leave behind when I am gone, and I love piecing, just have no desire to be an artistic quilter. I respect those that are, but there needs to be something available for newbie LAQs, fixed income customers, and people like me who just want to keep the layers together. I have even been known to tie quilts. (Gasp!) After saying all of this, I do love to see the quilting artists displaying their art at shows and here, because I now know what it really takes to do it. Peace

DebraK

phbbbtt. that's funny. but the thread has been enjoyable.

quiltingshorttimer

As a long arm quilter, I try to find out what the customer is thinking--both design, thread choice, etc. Often they don't really have a clear design in mind--so I'll suggest a couple of designs. But first and foremost is finding out her price range--like most quilters, I charge more for hand quided vs. panto, dense quilting vs light meander/stipple.

Regarding panto--while I much prefer to work at the front of the machine and do hand guided/custom, sometimes a complex piecing quilt is best highlighted by a panto or edge to edge.

ArchaicArcane

Exactly this! Sometimes - especially in times where I'm not as creative as usual - little to no guidance from the customer makes the job extremely difficult. I would rather they came in with an example or one I saw in the shop I service machines at, there was a whole plan drawn out before the guy even brought his gorgeous denim quilt in to be quilted.

I try to start with "how dense do you like you're quilting? Do you like more traditional quilting (though sometimes the top itself will give that away) or more modern? What's your price range?" but even these questions are vulnerable to "Oh I like everything!"

The last quilt I did, she liked everything and had a million vague ideas and was sure anything I chose would be fine. Then the final nail in the coffin: Take your time, no rush at all. The only saving grace was a mutual friend telling me what the first friend was hoping the quilt to stay in the range of price wise. I still probably worked for $5 an hour by the time you figure in the time spent auditioning designs and creating a custom panto and the SITD.

Sometimes I find the design lends itself to an easily repeatable pattern but not a full panto. For that braid I mentioned, I created a custom panto for just the braid portions of the quilt, so I knew I'd have the same spacing on all 8 braid pieces. It doesn't look like a panto but a small portion of it is pantoed.

madamekelly

Just for you all who wonder, my quilt was a scrappy hearts made of squares and triangles. The squares were 2" and had 2.5" sashing which was unbleached muslin on muslin (if it were white on white, I would know how to describe it). There were so many colors among the white/beige that she suggested a loop de loop with hearts stitched every so often. She even helped me name my quilt. It is called "Happy Hearts". My blocks were 10"x10" and her hearts were about 5" so it was stitched approximately 4 inches apart at most.

jitkaau

I don't know about becoming too common or trending because haven't they been around for a very long time? Take a look at the traditional Durham quilts from England. They are not exactly very modern. Nor are the French quilts. I like them but I think the point you are making is that they can be over done and look a bit messy. I like them to fill the space without a lot of fillers or stippling.

margecam52

It takes time to learn different techniques. McTavishing is fairly easy to learn, much easier than feathers. I love doing the technique, not near as good as Karen McT. is, but customers like it.

Most of my customers let me decide what to put on their quilts. I do have an automated system (TL18LS w/Qbot V3), but I don't use it very often. I look at the quilt and the pattern...and sometimes it takes a day or even a week just staring at the quilt...I decide what I want on the top. Sometimes, it needs a feather block or a feather border. Usually, the old gramma's tops I do, well they just need something that gramma would have hand quilted on them. I do a lot of SID (Stitch in the Ditch), also 1/4" outside the ditch on some items...it really depends on the top.

I've gotten some really wonky quilts & I have to take that into consideration. If the person was not the best at piecing...or tension was not great on their sewing machine...that is taken into consideration. Out of about 20 quilts in the past two months...I think I used a feather border once, a block motif maybe 3 times, Qbot designs about 6 times (alternated blocks on an appliqued quilt). Right now I have a 1920's quilt that is 8" squares on point. Customer wanted the quilt "Floppy", so she could cuddle in it while remembering here gramma, who made the quilt. She wanted an allover open "squiggle, or something like that." I am using an end to end design with the robot...it's called Chantilly Lace. Very pretty when done, looks nice...and I've done it large and open...this quilt will be real "Floppy", but will not be a simple meandering line. And even though it's on point, I'm surprised that it's done well, no issues really at all.

wendiq

I LOVE feathers......I like other types of quilting too, but feathers just seem to make a quilt smile and they can be done in so many styles......

quiltingnd

I love feathers. As soon as I am brave enough to try them on my dsm, I will probably use feathers a lot. To me, they are graceful and feminine.