In our great grandmother's time, quilts needed to be closely quilted to keep the batting from shifting and falling apart. 1/2" was common. Modern batting is different. I use Theremore, which says to quilt at least every 10". I have seen award winning APQS quilts with 1/4" between rows of quilting. IMHO, that's fine for a wall hanging if it gives the effect you want. I generally have my quilting 2-4" apart. I have won a bunch of blue ribbons in the 10 years I have been doing it.

For me it is a big difference if the quilt is quilted by machine or by hand. I have never seen a hand quilted item that is "overdone" in some way. For one of my quilts I used about 10 spools of thread each with 250 yards on it.
Unfortunately I don't have the possibility to see many long arm quilted quilts here in Germany. But on several quilts I saw it was a little too much quilting.

Sure it can be overdone, but I also see quilts that would be much improved by more quilting, or more thoughtful pairing of quilting design with the piecing patterns.

RST

I like to go no less than 2" apart and maybe even 3. I like them soft and bendy.

I guess there are no hard and fast rules here, it must surely be down to the kind of quilt you are making and what kind of batting you use. Some require less quilting on account of the batting which does not migrate in the way others might. I happen to like a softer quilt hand quilted and made to to used, but a wall hanging might need to be stiffer and have plenty of texture in the decorative areas requiring more dense quilting. Every one to their own I think, I love to look at art quilts some of which have heavy quilting but I wouldn't be interested in making one, it is all down to the individual as I said and there are no rules.

Gal

Lots of quilting is ok,as long as I don't own it.Can't use it on a bed & after pics are taken, what do they do with them? Maybe they're meant for banks etc to hang?

Saw one last yr that I'd dare anyone to tell me what color fabric was used.You couldn't even tell the base color...before it was threaded to death.Even every day quilting by a LA quilter changes the feel of a quilt.No softness, no comfy curl up left.JMO

yes too much. I think there should be diffrent categories in quilt shows for "show quilts" and "quilts to be used by real people" There really is no reson for us normal people to even think about entering anything in a quilt show anymore.

I have read through the responses to this topic, and I do wonder why some of you are using such small spools of thread? I buy big cones of thread to stitch my quilts. I get 4000 metres of cottong thread for £9.50 from a company in the UK - to me, that is good value.

As for the original question, I love to see the heavily stitched quilts, as much for the effort and artistry in them. If they are full of holes, then perhaps the needle was too big. I have also read that the idea of poly cotton thread cutting a quilt to pieces has been busted as a myth and simply untrue. Perhaps time will tell on that one, but I doubt if I will see it happen in my lifetime.

To each his own. I say do what you like, but I would never say that someones quilt is "absolutely horrid" because they don't agree with me!!!!

I agree 100 percent with Lacelady - machine quilting is an art in itself. 'Too much quilting', who can judge? It depends what the quilt is for, an art piece or to be used.

I've seen whole cloth FMQd quilts that are absolutely breathtaking, the English woman Ferret for example (google her, she's fantastic and has had quilts at Houston).

Our craft is evolving. If it doesn't, it will die out like the dodo. :D