Do you quilt yourself or take it to someone
 

I would love to quilt my own, but feel like I really need a long arm. Don't have the money for that. It's really too expensive to send my quilts out every time unless they're for someone special.

Do you guys quilt your own or send out. If you quilt your own, do you do it on a domestic? I just don't think I can handle that bulk on a domestic.

check with your local quilt shops- often machine quilting classes are offered- so you can learn to quilt your own on your domestic machine == many big-name/famouse quilters quilt their own quilts on their domestic's-
i took classes and quilted my own for the first few years until i reached the point of deciding a long-arm was an option-so now i quilt my own on that- and quilt for others- but i quilted alot of quilts on my good ole regular machine first ;)

I do both. But I don't send them out because I can't handle the bulk on my domestic machines. I send them out because I want extra fancy quilting I can't do. I have a Janome 6600 and it has a 9 inch throat. It's not on a frame and it never will be. The extra throat space makes shoving a quilt thru it quite a bit easier. I quilted a full size double Irish Chain on it and I turned it and quilted squares on the pieced squares. It wasn't all that hard to do but I did have to rest my arms and shoulders every day after quilting for 3 to 4 hours.

I have had a gal near me quilt my last 3 quilts. She has a long arm. I need to take some classes on FM quilting, so I can attempt this myself.

I hand quilt all my quilts, takes a long time, but I love the peaceful handwork. Eventually, I will learn to FMQ on my Kenmore... I would love to learn to machine quilt my own, but don't want to give up handquilting. Another option for domestic quilting is to make your quilt in strips, quilt the strips, then put them together... you can watch videos on lapquilting... to see how to put it together after having the stirps quilted... I am machine quilting one like that, but not enjoying machine quilting, so is a UFO right now. There are lots of options out there...

I do all my own myself with hand quilting. I have four boards and clamps and put it up in a room in the basement which is just for that. Nothing else in the room so I can accomodate a large king size quilt.

I always quilt my own on my Janome 6600. Before I got that machine, I quilted on an old (1970s) Montgomery Ward machine. I've done up to queen sized with no problem.

I do all of mine on my Janome 6600 but I have never made anything bigger then a twin size and have not had any issues.

The only one I've sent out to be LAQ was king sized (no way was I going to do that with my machine). I can't afford it to send mine out. I make mostly lap/crib quilts for that reason. I quilted a twin quilt, but really had to wrestle it through the machine. I'm just learning to FMQ. I mostly just SID & outline quilt.

My DD recently got a mid-arm on a frame and is still learning. She has one of mine that was partially quilted. She's adding some FMQ to it, partly as practice on the frame& because she's ssuch a good daughter & partly to help me out. I think she just wanted mine to practice on. Not that I mind, whatever she does will be better than what I'm can do. :)

I quilt my own on my Janome 6600P.It takes a lot of practice, and it is not as good as the professionals,but is all done by ME.It is also way cheaper,as it is very expensive here in Australia to have it done by a provessional.

I send my really special quilts out to the LAQ and the really big ones. Everything else I do myself--not my favorite part of making a quilt, but I'm getting so I like doing it better than I used to!

I second what Patchworkmarion says about it being very expensive here in Australia.

I quilt my own. I have had 2 quilted by others, but simply can't afford it. Yes, you CAN handle at least a large queen on a domestic. However, with moving such a heavy fabric sandwich, limit yourself to about an hour a day (or twice a day for an hour). Otherwise, you get exhausted, irritated and make mistakes.

I recently bought a Bernina 440 QE. If you can afford it in future, save for a quilter's machine. They usually have 2-3 more inches between the needle and motor housing and this makes a HUGE difference!

i hand quilt all my own stuff. I am not interested in machine quilting, and it's a good thing since I don't have the space to do it! :)

learning to do them myself..I have over 30 tops to be done...at anywhere from $200.00- $400.00 for quilting..I need to do it myself.

I do my own quilting...nothing fancy just Stitch in the Ditch for now but it's my
own work. I might hire a Long Arm quilter one day for some fancy quilting.
Until then I'm quite happy doing it myself. I guess you can call it personal
satisfaction. :)

Edit: Forgot to add that I use a Janome 6600 which has a fairly large throat.
I've managed Full size quilts but haven't gone bigger yet. If I make anything
bigger I might consider quilting in section. As to managing the bulk, put
a table in front and an ironing board or another table on the side. Don't leave
the quilt hanging that's what makes it more difficult to handle. Some put their
sewing machine in a corner facing the wall so that their quilt doesn't drag.

I do both...if I something I can't do then I have it done on a longarm...I am learning to do a lot of designs with my own machine...I can do XXX's, lines and flowers, use decorative stitches and even use some stencils if they have a design with a line I can sew easily.

I help out at a LA shop ( owners has full time job during the day so thats when I work) so I LA all mine,she did them before I learned. I would never attempt to do any quilting at home on my machine, I have no desire to even try !

I do my own. Up to about 7 feet I can do on my little brother with a 6 1/2 inch throat. Larger I use a frame like Iamquilter and hand quilt.

I quilt my own on my Bernina domestic. I have quilted king on down. You have to roll your quilt and work in quarters. It takes some practice but it can be done.

Do you have ROOM for a longarm? I did and then purchased one using their no interest financing. I am paying $219 a month for 4 years. I got the machine and frame at a quilt show where they had this financing. I pay ahead of time every month. I guess it depends on how much you would use it and would you consider doing quilts for others who would pay you. After awhile, you would feel that you were experienced enough to do that. But you would have to LOVE it. I love doing it and have finished 16 quilts in 8 months. I have almost covered my expenses without doing anything for another person.
This is really a personal decision, but the frames are huge. 10 to 12 feet. Could you do that?

I quilt mine on my domestic machine. If I have a king size I do it "QAYG" or in sections.
I do have some block quilts that i am goin gto "tack".

If I cannot quilt a quilt by SID then I send it out. I have to learn to do it myself!

I quilt all of mine myself. Some of them are hand quilted, most are stitch in the ditch or meander FMQ. I use a cheapy dinky Walmart quality Brother machine which has never disappointed me. Yes, on a bigger quilt I have to push it through the throat, but, the machine just does chugging along.

I do mine on a Singer 301 with a 7 1/4" throat - though the opening is a little higher that some of the modern machines. FMQ, SITD and on the last one thread painting the images. My little machine does whatever I want her to.

Leah Day had a series of FM lessons that started last Wednesday. I'm sure the intro and the first lesson are still up. The next lesson will be posted Wednesday and a new one every Wednesday after that. It does start very simply. Here is the intro to " The Free Motion Quilting Project".
http://www.freemotionquilting.blogsp...tart-here.html

Make a sandwich to practice on and have fun. The hardest thing for me was the concept that I could sew backwards by moving the fabric. We are so attuned to sewing forward.

I did my first one and one other one on my regular domestic machine. I helped my DD do the quilting on the second quilt I made using her domestic machine. THEN -- I bought a longarm and went into business. A few quilts for practice and I was on my way. I do tiny things on my domestic, but even table runners etc I do on the longarm. I also have the computer system with it so have lots of designs to choose from. Love being able to manipulate a design to fit where I want it and then change over and add free motion quilting with the LA to the same quilt.

Phyllis
QuiltingGrannie
Quilter's Pantry

I always tied mine, now I have a long arm.

Our local long-armer rents time on her machine - quite reasonably after you take a class on her machine. You might check into that. I think she charges $12.00/hr. Every month at our guild meeting she draws a name for a free long arm lesson. But I do all mine on my domestic machine. I've done up to queen size. It takes practice but it's very doable.

I do my own mostly - very simply - either stitch near a ditch (I often use a scallop stitch that's on my machine) - or crosshatch. I have sent out 4 to a friend who has charged me $50 each - 2 large lap and 2 twin. I send out when I want it fancier than I can do, when the quilt was for my husband and I didn't want him to see it, and when it was larger than I wanted to fool with. I SOOOO want to take a class, but have avoided internet courses.. wanted a real person teacher, but have not found one yet.

I have been learning to do my own. I handquilt, which I love, but it takes me forever. I have a couple of queen size quilts that have a tricot top that I am working on and those are being handquilted, mostly because I haven't tried machine quilting those yet. I have done a queen quilt for my sil, and am undoing parts of it, because I found tucks. I use my viking lily 550 to do this. My daughter did a crib quilt on her brother machine that we got at walmart. I find I do need to take breaks, so when I have stitched for a while, and I am at a stopping point, I move on to something else for a while.

I kind of want a longarm, but I would probably need to go into business to help pay for it, and I haven't decided if I want to do that yet.

i couldn't stand it...i bought a longarm and i love spending time on it... for me it was worth it...there are many good used machines out there and I have loved having one of them....she is Miss Kitty....I bought her USED and she lived in Dodge City..... you have to be old to get the joke, but it's there....

Right now I do all my quilts on my domestic. But I haven't done larger than a twin.

My LQS offers a class to "license" you on their long arm. It is a $75 class, and then the rental is like $40/3 hours.

I do mine on my BabyLock. I don't do anything fancy and I don't free-motion, although it is my goal this year to practice that. I rented time on a long-arm at my LQS once. It didn't go that well, but I got through it and my son's fiancee loves it. The owner of the LQS couldn't believe it took me so long to do it! I haven't been back. But I am content with my stitch in the ditch and whatever else is easy ways of doing it.

I have a Brother machine with a neck space of about 5 inches and I quilt my own. I just roll and take my time. I still only do straight line or quilt in the ditch but you can still make it look good. The largest I have quilted is a queen size. I do have a gentlemen that I had quilt a king size for me because I wanted it to be fancy quilted.

Kim

I quilt my own on my machine. It does have a large throat, and that helps. It has a 9 1/2 inch throat....just measured, but it doesn't matter. I am too "cheap" to send one out to be quilted. I SID most of the time and am quite happy with that. Sometimes I do a diagonal cross stitch-type thing and sometimes I use a combination of both. I did learn to put my ironing board at a 90 degree angle to the left of my machine, and that helps support the weight of the quilt. It was impossible before that. Gravity always won.

Dina

As ckcowl said, there are shops that will rent out their longarms. There is a shop not too far from me who does lessons and rents out time on their longarms. Probably the best of both worlds for those that want to do that. Me, I'm a handquilter. Only do smaller charity quilts on my domestic machine. Best of both worlds for ME.

My very first few quilts were tied, because I didn't know how to quilt. I soon learned to quilt on my domestic machine and quilted all my quilts on my domestic machine. I'm getting older, and I was having trouble getting down on the kitchen floor to pin my quilts, so I got one of the more inexpensive longarms and have been doing my own quilting on that. I've always wanted to do it all because I love every part of it. I know some really prefer piecing to quilting. Some prefer quilting to piecing. Nothing wrong with either, I just like both and want to see it all the way through. I've never sent one out, although a lot of you do a much better job than I do. I just love doing it!

I do my own. I have a larger throat space now but I did my own on a 1980's JCPenney's before I got this newer machine. I can't/won't afford to send them out. But I do LOVE the look of what the long armers on the QB can do for the quilts they show us! My largest was a extra lrg queen. I am going to do a king for myself soon, tho.

I quilt my own. I used to quilt them on my Bernina, but this last year I bought an HQ Sweet Sixteen sit down and love love love it.

I hand quilt all of my quilts. I find the hand quilting very relaxing and peaceful. I do not use a frame, everything is done in my lap. I couldn't afford to have someone else do them.