I'm already hapoy.

We all have our preferences and dislikes. While I do like some of the embroidery applique designs, I so rarely use my embroidery attachment. It's just not something that appeals to me. It's perfectly fine to prefer a technique over another.

When first joining in on the Quilting Board, it was because I wanted to learn to quilt. After seeing the beautiful avatars, I knew most of the people on the Board were WAAAAAY out of my class on quilting, but I don't have any friends who sew, much less quilt, and I wanted to "meet" people with my interest --- and you have to begin somewhere, so I joined a wall hanging swap (start small) on the Board. Since I was not confident, I did what I could do best - I machine embroidered some lovely floral squares with sayings on them, pieced them together, batted and backed it, machine quilted it (straight stitching) and bound it (which is what quilters do, right?). I modeled it after one I had made myself and proudly hang in my own entrance area. Spent a lot of time on it - then worried and worried that someone receiving it would not like it. Low and behold, it seems in reading this thread that I may have been right!

Did I feel bad that the wall hanging I received was a beautiful work of art? (Again, thanks, Ube). YES I DID. But I knew that I had done my very best on mine. But reading this thread will really make me question whether to participate in another swap. Am I learning a lot on this Board - yes, I am - and I definitely appreciate everyone's advice, comments, and opinions. Actually have made ("pieced with material") 3 lap quilts to donate to a charity in the last year and a half by reading info from this Board. I did use my embroidery machine to "quilt" the last one and will do so in the future as I am not good at FM quilting, but my embroidery machine is. Bottom line - yes, I think machine embroidery can be an integral part of "quilting" -- and because of a conversation with my nephew over Thanksgiving, I think the younger generation is going to be doing a LOT of things differently than our generation.

Re: Rennie,

We are starting to confuse the end product of machine embroidery (lots of dense thread to make a design), with using an embroidery machine to quilt. This thread was started to ask how people feel about machine embroidery, not quilting with an embroidery machine-- another function of those machines.

We have the headline to blame for that. I suspect people read the title of a thread and then add their comment at the end without reading through the discussion. I never do that - of course! (Ahem.)

I think machine embroidery is probably considered the same way sewing with a machine now as opposed to hand piecing and quilting was at one time. I don't think you are a 'bad guy', we all think different.

If everyone felt that an embroidery machine was verboten, the thread wouldn't be here:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...un-t32969.html

I'm for anything that gets the job done faster and easier and the quilt police can kiss it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

What would anyone say to no sew raw edge applique being a form of quilting?

Whether it be by machine or one's hands whatever method of joining 2 or more pieces of fabric, isn't that considered quilting? Why does it matter what machine is used? I have seen beautiful quilts done entirely on embroidery machines stitching 2 or more pieces of fabric together. I appreciate all forms of fabric art and craftsmanship. I am not about to say to someone their art/craftsmanship is not the right way. Different strokes for different folks. I admire everyone's talent and I thank you all for sharing it with us. I don't give a rat's behind how you did it! Thank You!!

Same, Same

When people first started using machine embroidery when making quilts, they really hadn't figured out the best way to handle merging the two together. To me, the quilts hung badly and the density of the embroidery did not complement the quilting. Nowadays, quilters have learned techniques and have access to the things they need to make the quilts lovely to the eye and make all elements merge well. Now I see many lovely machined embroidered quilts. I'm sure if grandmother had a machine that quilted and/or did embroidery she would have used them to make her quilts too.