Embroidery was done freemotion, too. All of you who love old Singers should know this. The machines used were newly made electric. The ladies did embroidery, made lace, etc. All by moving a hoop or frame. Machines did not zigzag.
All of it fantastic.

Here's a link to the art book from Singer:
Came out in 1911.
https://archive.org/details/singerinstructio00sing

Machine embroidery on quilt blocks is the computer-age "red-work" of our great grandparents. It can be the design ON the blocks, but is NOT Quilting!

Did you read this entire thread carefully?

Post #69 has pictures of two embroidered quilts, the second quilt shows: "there is a quilt style that uses embroidery AS the quilting."

To me, that method of embroidery is securing the three layers (top, batting, backing) with stitching and it does qualify as Quilting. Do you really think that this style is a "design ON the blocks" and not quilting?

Not fair, Judythesewer. That second quilt was quilted with an embroidery machine, but it wasn't embroidery. It was an embroidery machine used to quilt. Her first quilt showed embroidery.

I still don't like it!

Agreed - the second quilt used an embroidery machine to do "quilting". I guess my comprehension of quilting cat's statement is wrong. I apologize for offending.

I enjoy hand embroidery; but I must say I do like machine embroidery.

Someone earlier in this thread (I don't remember who) compared machine embroidery to K-Mart merchandise, which is an apt comparison, considering that products in big-box stores are mass produced. However, in stores such as these, there is increasing attention to aesthetics in an attempt to appeal to a public whose tastes follow the trends seen in the media. Still, the subtlety and variation of something produced by hand is lacking.

I have seen that video and several others like it. Truly fascinating.

After reading all the posts I hope we are not letting each other have our opinions without feeling defensive about our likes and dislikes. Nothing is going to appeal to everyone. Isn't that okay? We all work hard on our quilting and use whatever style(s) we enjoy. Appliqué isn't for everyone. Neither is paper piecing. It all takes motivation, talent and skill at varying levels. I probably will never get out of the intermediate level but that's okay with me. Let's just keep quilting and have fun. I hope everyone has a nice day tomorrow.

When I first started quilting I said that I thought machine embroidery was cheating some how. I had hand stitched for a long time and maybe that was where my influence was. As I got more into quilts and changed my quilt classes to a more modern quilt style many ladies had embroidery machines. I decided to have a go and bought a second hand machine off a lady in my class. It took me a while to get my head around it and I have a lot to learn on how to do these quilts, I think it is a skill that can compliment my piecing but I haven't mixed the two yet.