Do all quilters consider machine embroidery to be quilting?
 

First of all, let me just 'fes up and say that I am NOT a fan of machine embroidery. I just don't see the beauty or skill in something a sophisticated machine generates out of a program. The reason I ask my question is that I have been in several swaps over the past year and in each one people seem to be going more towards machine embroidery for their designs, rather than creating their designs with piecework, applique or hand embroidery. Is it considered part of quilting nowadays? I don't see it as quilting at all. Embroidery is it's own thing, to my mind. I hesitate to enter swaps anymore because you get so much machine embroidery! And to suggest you don't like it makes you the 'bad guy'. Just wondering what others think. Is it just universally accepted and embraced? I cringe when I see it on a quilt.

Well machine embroidery is not much different than computerized quilting machines in my book anyway.

It is just personal preference. I don't appreciate machine embroidery or computerized long arm quilting the way some do. I also do not like a densely quilted quilt. I can appreciate the skill and talent it takes if the quilter goes freehand, but I still don't like it. I'm sticking with what I like. I have never entered a swap.

not my first choice! I have a embroidery machine but if I do anything it is for a wall quilt. I dislike the poofy look of embroidery as it hangs off a wall in a saggy state. All mine are tacked down through the embroidery and quilted evenly throughout.

I don't consider machine embroidery on a quilt as "quilting". I see it more as decorative. I've never been much of a machine embroidery person either now or in the past. I really don't even care for those little embroidered motifs that you can buy & sew on to things.

I used to feel the same way about machine embroidery. Just enter the program and let the machine do the rest. It really isn't that easy, and after learning more about it I have a greater respect for the people that do it well. Much like using a long arm to quilt, it does take a lot of skill. Each piece needs to be valued on its own. Some embroidery machines have quilting guilt in to it, you have to do each one separate - that is a lot of work. But just an embroidered block, is just another way to make a quilt, much like using a panel.

people used to hand quilt... now there's machine quilting. people used to hand embroider... now there's machine embroidery. i never use a commercial embroidery design... i digitize my own. this is the most time-consuming part of many of my small quilts. i rarely use it on large quilts. i appreciate all methods of getting a quilty piece of 'art'

It's perfectly acceptable that you do not care for the look of machine embroidery - everyone has their own preferences and all are completely valid! While the machine may stitch out the actual design, please understand there is quite a bit of work involved in matching threads to your project fabrics and to compliment the overall embroidery design not to mentioned determining the right stabilizer(s) and test stitch outs to be sure you have the right combinations for your projects. Before you begin any stitch out you also have to review the design to make sure you know what each color change does, which ones provide the primary color of an object and which ones provide shading, or shadows, or if they contrast or blend with the primary color. Many designs may have 15 to 30 color changes (some are much higher) which provides detail and or shading to the finished design and may take well over an hour to produce a single design. By the time you make a couple test stitch outs you may well have 4 to 5 hours invested in a single 5 x 7 design. I recently completed an embroidery wall hanging, approximately 35 x 45, which had a total of 497,000 stitches in the 25, 6 x 6, blocks before they were even sewn together. While you do not need to like the look of machine embroidery, please appreciate that there may be great deal of work and frankly skill involved in producing that embroidery design.

I make quilts. I do machine embroidery. Sometimes I combine the two arts. I don't do swaps but if I did, I would not send an embroidered block unless it was a requirement of the swap.

Cari