It depends on the quilt. I like both.

I know of 3-4 long arm quilters within couple towns and one runs it like a real business and has the computerized one. I have yet to see any of her quilts as you mention here. I'm thinking it's the operator of the machine and how they set it up that messes it and not the computerized program. After all a computerized program will only do what you tell it to do. The other gals have the non-computerized one and there work is also very nice.

I think both have their place. I have a longarm but no computer, and I love doing custom quilting. I get bored doing E2E and I hate doing pantos so I just don't do them, so in a perfect world, I would have 2 longarms, one set up without a computer system and one with a computer, so I could do both at the same time.

While here in Florida, a wonderful quilty friend let me use her Proto with IQ on a 14" frame to quilt a 130"x130" quilt that would not fit on my 12" frame. I got to learn how to use the IQ while doing this quilt and really liked how user-friendly it was. It was really cool to have the IQ quilting a row while I sat at my sewing machine and pieced another quilt!

There is definitely a different skill set needed for computerized quilting as opposed to hand-guided LA quilting, but it is great for getting the pattern perfect every time - of course, placement is an issue for computerized quilting that is not a problem when I am guiding the LA - I can easily adjust to the size of the block, takes a bit more to do individual blocks with a computerized system. I will always take it as a complement if someone thinks my quilting was done by a computerized system :thumbup:

I personally don't care for the computerized look. I think of quilting as "art" and think the non-perfect part of quilting gives more interest to the eye.

I know what panto's are, and how they work, and have even tried them out.

I just wanted opinions as to whether you considered them to be closer to free motion or more like computerized quilting.

I let mine do her own thing and it has always turned out great!

I do freemotion -- because I can't afford the computer yet. I WAS babysitting a friend's computerized longarm. It had a program where I could create designs. I COULD adjust a design so it didn't go over a line more than 2 times (let's say) but you would lose the design!!!! There's a reason for it backtracking a lot. You simply can't get from here to there without backtracking a lot on some designs. And, I too, do a lot of backtracking. in some cases....more than I should. :)

I've noticed that people that use strictly computer or pantos tend to use the same patterns over and over and over. I like free motion for 2 reasons: 1) each block is looked at individually and I quilt for that quilt - not just because I have a certain pattern and 2) I get bored as heck watching the machine work and I'm having to stand there! My shop is in an outbuilding on our property....I can't do anything else but stay with it.

Both bring a lot of great quilting to the quilt. As far as cost goes, free-hand doesn't involve extra equipmemt at around $10,000 to $15,000.

Overall I prefer the freehand quilter, who brings special talent to the job.

Lanny

Questions? I am very new to quilting anything myself. What book do you have that you feel taught you the most as a beginner? What machine do you have (and does it have curise control)? There is noting FREE about my motion yet, but I know it is practice, practice, practice.

IMHO if there is an abundence of backtracking it is a problem with the (poor)design and how it was digitized not the fault of the computer