I've done both. The big quilts I send out. I put aside a little bit everymonth to help with the costs. The smaller lap size and down I do either SID or crosshatch. I have a bad back and visually impaired so not sure I could do a twin size. My machines are old singers so have larger throat areas. I will attempt a 60 x60 soon. Wish me luck!!

I quilt my small items myself. I am learning how to follow quilt designs. I took a free motion quilting class, but I prefer to use my walking foot. I even do curved designs with the walking foot. My big quilts are done by my long arm quilter-friend. I babysit her dogs in exchange for quilting.

I am envious of those who have long arm machines and frames . I have quilted a few on the LQS Bailey and have more fun with each one I work on. Right now I am half way through FMQ a full size on my Singer --- need to go buy a new FMfoot for it as mine broke. Tomorrow I will set up my Bernette 46 and FMQ a small quilt from the Northern Cardinal book.

Well ... I do both. Bear in mind that I am a new quilter, but I have completed five so far. Of those, I quilted the lap quilt and the twins on a Baby Lock Quilter's Choice machine; I took the queen sized ones to a long-arm quilter. I think in the future, my decision will be based on what I plan to do with it. I am planning a quilt right now that will be raffled off by my husband's National Guard unit as a fundraiser. It will definitely go to the long-arm quilter to get a professional finished look.

Why not try a simple grid pattern until you gain confidence and experience? Stitch in the ditch is harder than FMQ in my opinion as it is harder to be precisely in the ditch. I do all of my own but was not confident at first. I had many tops that I didn't want to 'ruin' with bad quilting. A friend asked me to help her quilt some charity quilts as it was her cunning plan to get me moving. After I finished the project I was not worried any more and continue to improve. All it takes is practice. Jump in and do some smaller charity quilts first.

I do most of my own up to a queen on a Janome 6600P. It does take a lot of muscle on the bigger ones, so I've sent 1 oversize queen & 1 king to a longarm gal here in town who does amazing work. I've also taken a longarm class at a quilt store in town, but haven't been brave enough to try it yet. Would love a longarm of my own but just don't have the space. I am considering a sweet 16 sit down machine if I can figure out where to put it!

I quilt on my domestic pfaff.
even big quilts and with feathers and scallops and everything.
Not freehand, I'm not good at that.
But with a pattern on paper which I remove after sewing.....ok a lot of work getting the paper off but it's worth the time as I save a lot of money with doing it myself.
I take care that my shoulders are hanging low while quilting ,and be sure the quilt rest mostley on my table and my legs so I won't have a lot of weight on my hands.
The biggest quilt was 104 x 110 inch , but I still had place for a little bigger one

I quilt most of mine on my long-arm. Saves me stress on my neck & shoulders~

I sent two of my first quilts out, but figured if I was going to quilt I was going to invest in a machine that I could do my own. It has paid for its self....I love my 7700 Jamone. Best investment for me...figured I might as well pay myself instead of giving my money away...

I quilt on my domestic machine. Not perfect, can't afford to send out and donate to charity.

I do my own. From start to finish, I use my old Singer 15. Does the best FM! The more I do, the more I enjoy!

I send my quilts out to a longarm quilter. I have no desire to own a longarm machine. I can send a lot of quilts out to be quilted for the cost of the machine, I have no desire to learn how and no room to put a large machine.
I quilt my charity quilts on my Bernina using a walking foot, these are usually crib/lap size which are easy enough to do.
I spend a lot of time and money on my quilts and don't mind having them professionally quilted.
They are beautiful when I pick them up. I send 3-4 quilts a year. Still cheaper than buying a longarm machine.

I am a hand-quilter and have recently attempted to quilt domestically with my sewing machine. But it wasn't the same. The feel of peace and knowing my fingers were providing each loving stitch in putting the quilt together, just cannot be replaced. I will put the tops together with my machine, but I'm afraid I'm lost and at peace and in my own quiet world when I hand-quilt. I still have my eyesight - so guess I will continue hand-quilting until I am forced to give it up. Sure, it takes a bit longer to complete each quilt, but you know, it's kind of nice having the "almost" finished project in my lap, keeping my legs warm, while I continue putting on the binding....awww..it's like my own quiet meditation while I walk into my memory of thoughts....

I quilt my own on my Viking. I do a little hand work but it hurts my hands so much I limit it to small or really special quilts. I can't justify the cost of sending my things out. I rather spend the time learning how to do my machine quilting better. I have no aspirations to do show quilts or art quilts. I just want to create and give them away to special people that I want to gift with a quilt.

If I want it to really look good I take it to someone else.

I quilt all of my own on my Bernina do wish I had the larger throat space but I do mine in sections then put the sections together and there are videos of this on you tube however I have taken several classes on this and all very helpful I cannot afford to send all of mine out so had to learn how to do it

I do my own quilting on my home machine. I have taken a couple of classes in machine quilting and they helped me a lot.

I'm a pretty new quilter. I've only been quilting for 2 years and machine quilting for only 1 year. When I found out you could quilt on the machine I just did it. I don't do a lot of the really fancy stitches but am learning new things every time I quilt. I have a Singer 2010 and so far have been able to quilt a full size. I find quilting very soothing. The last quilt I did was a gift for a friend who loves tea so I quilted tea pots and tea time on it , she loves it . Not everything is perfect but it is getting better all of the time. One of the ladies in my quilt group said I didn't know it was suppose to be hard. Just keep learning. Mamia

Just keep trying
 

I'm a pretty new quilter. I've only been quilting for 2 years and machine quilting for only 1 year. When I found out you could quilt on the machine I just did it. I don't do a lot of the really fancy stitches but am learning new things every time I quilt. I have a Singer 2010 and so far have been able to quilt a full size. I find quilting very soothing. The last quilt I did was a gift for a friend who loves tea so I quilted tea pots and tea time on it , she loves it . Not everything is perfect but it is getting better all of the time. One of the ladies in my quilt group said I didn't know it was suppose to be hard. Just keep learning. Mamia

While it is true that one can have a lot of quilts finished by a longarmer out there in the community, there is some satisfaction to saying, "I did this all by myself". I bought a long arm last year and I am enjoying the challenge and the results. Will the machine ever pay for itself? Maybe - who knows?

I send anything bigger than a twin to a pro. The stress of getting all that quilt sandwich through my regular machine just takes all the fun out of it. I consider it a gift to myself when I send one out to a pro.

cass
 

I have a Brother Quattro 6000D Sewing & Embroidery Machine & PE Design software, so on the last 6 lapsize quilts that I have made, I have used my software for the design and then used my embroidery hoops. So far they look good but haven't tried a overall pattern or a larger size quilt. Has anyone else
tried using this method?

Anything bigger than a baby crib quilt gets sent to a professional. I figure I spend all that time and money on making the top, it deserves to be the best looking quilt that I can provide!

I do my own on a quilt machine named Flo.

I quilt SID most of my quilts adding a few hearts, leafs or stars. here and there. I've tried free motion but have to work on it more. I recently SID a twin size quilt and it was tough going at times mostly because it was a log cabin with lots of seams that made the quilt quite heavy. Working on another twin right now, simple Irish Chain (9 patch with a plain square) so it's lighter and not so bulky. Got creative and decided to quilt on the diagonal, not so easy but almost finished.

I've sent a few quilts to be quilted by gal in my guild. She does excellent work and she doesn't charge members too much but I've found that there is a long turnaround time. She always asks when I want it for and I usually say a month or 4 weeks or so and she writes it down on my receipt. With the last 2 quilts I have had to call after 6 weeks or so to remind her. My problem is that when she asks when do I need the quilt by my real answer would be Yesterday! LOL. Plan to have a heart to heart with her and ask her if a month is too little time for her and that she should tell me when she feels she could have my quilt ready, I don't want to be ungrateful for her good prices. .

I FMQ using my sewing machine. I also have a long arm for personal use and for my friends to use. I do not provide LA services as a business. Since I only have my short frame up, if I do a large quilt top, I send it out.

I quilt all my own. Paying for someone to long-arm quilts is totally out of my budget, as is a long-arm of my own. I've done king and queen size on a domestic machine with 7" throat. I'm happy now to have a machine with a 9" throat. The real keys are a large table to rest the bulk on, and working in the same direction (center out, or left to right, etc.

good morning.
I stipple my own. I just drop the feed dogs and go to town. I love to stipple, I do stitch in the ditch sometimes. I always did that on my regular sewing machine. but now I bought a juki TL98Q. that machine is so cool.
But again my regular machine (singer) is what I always did mine on.
try stippling a place mat and see how you like it
best of luck to you.
Dawn

I rarely quilt my own quilts, just crib and small lap occasionally.
Janice Cutting, a LAQ in my SooNipi Guild, does all my machine work. She does fabulous work and never overquilts.
I have found a gal on the Board to whom I will send those quilts I want handquilted. She sent me pictures of her work - simply beautiful.
I rarely drink, I don't buy clothes, I don't travel, seldom eat out etc.
Quilt-related is my one extravagance (spelling?) and it's a big, expensive one.

I send mine out because I haven't learned to fmq yet. I do know how to hand quilt but don't have good space for a king size quilt. I usually only make tops and then have them quilted when I need a finished quilt for a gift or own use. I don't have the storage space for a number of quilted quilts so storing the tops works for me.

I do my own simply because I want it to be my own work (good or bad). Sometimes you put alot of work into piecing a quilt then have someone else quilt it - the comments coming back are "Oh, what beautiful quilting!" I did just finish quilting a king-size on my domestic Juki and never again will I struggle with anything that big - from now on the Kings go out to someone.

Have you checked around for a store that rents out their longarm? Usually, they require a class to learn how to use their machine and certify you to use it, then you can rent the machine.

I have quilted on my domestic machine and rented the LQS LA until we moved and had room for me to get a LA.

That said I had FMQ classes by Elizabeth Spannring, Diane Gaudynski, and Sue Rasmussen, who all do their quilting on domestic home machines and do large quilts.

I do hand quilting on a frame.

I quilt all my own because we're on a fixed budget and it barely affords my fabric spenditures, let alone what it would cost to have my quilts done for me. I am not an accomplished quilter such as the fancy designs. I do mostly SID and meandering, but they have come out nice so far and I'm hoping to learn some of the fancy stitches this year. I don't slow down enough to practice much, so it has to be right on my quilts. Scary!! LOL! So far so good on my little domestic Brother HS 2000 and some have been as big as a twin or full sized quilt. Just roll really tight & be very careful.

I do my own quilting, but I don't make bed quilts. Mostly wall hangings or table runners. If I did make a bed quilt, I would send it out to be quilted.

I machine quilt all of my quilts on a domestic home sewing machine, usually my vintage Featherweight. I also teach free motion quilting on domestic machines at the local community college here in Mena, Rich Mountain Community College.

Several quilt shops around here are teaching customers to long arm quilt on the store machines. You take a class to learn, then you can rent time on the long arm machine. I think that's awesome. You get a chance to try it first before you even consider buying a quilting machine.

I do my own. I fmq on my Viking Sapphire 870 and love doing it! I have a friend who does hers on her small domestic machine and she does queen size.

I do my own. I've done th em on a domestic, then a mid arm and I am waitng now for my long arm to come. Caan't wait. Hopefully I will get good at it. I do fine but I want to be GOOD.