I don't feel that if I send out a quilt to a professional longarm quilter it is no longer my quilt.
That just shows that I know my strengths and weaknesses and have the good sense to make the quilt all it can be by having and expert do the quilting. :wink:

Great way to look at it!

Real sister in soul.............so what kind of quilting do you do on your projects?[/quote]

I have done hand quilting, I know how, tied a couple and I do machine quilting. I was given the gift of a short arm machine but I am having a hard time making it behave like I want it to. I need to practice on it instead of sitting here reading about other's great jobs.

As a longarm quilter I am more anxious about doing the quilting for one of my customers than I am on my own quilts because I do know how much time and effort and love are put into these quilt tops. I never feel that they are just a piece of fabric. I feel really honored that someone would trust me enough to hand off their hours of labor to help put the next step of the process together for them. I have never asked anyone to include my name on one of their labels.

I have several friends that do long arm work for others and they sometimes agonize over the type of design that they will do on a particular quilt (when they first started). None of them have ever told me that they feel hurt or slighted that I have not asked them to work on my quilts. I just figure that they "get it" even though we have not talked about why I choose to do my own. Simple fact is, I enjoy doing my own.

It is not being asked or obligated to include the long arm quilter to the label, I would not be able to give away a quilt without telling that I am not the one that did the quilting.
Maybe it is because I think that the quilting is the icing of the cake.

I embroider/quilt many of my quilts and don't consider the hooping to be a struggle. Though I'm sure different brands are much easier than others.

I spend a lot of time on my quilt tops. I have never been successful in doing my own long arm quilting, even on a small quilt. I am grateful to my long arm quilter for the love and care she puts into finishing my quilt. I always give her credit for enhancing the beauty of my quilt tops.

I have always wanted to do my own too. But I do long arm for others and don't care if my name is on their label or not. But if it goes to a show, I would like my name mentioned as being the quilter. I get anxiety every time I put a customer's quilt on the frame. LOL Just do whatever makes you happy that's my motto.

I happen to like SID and have not even progressed to meandering. So my attitude is that you do the best you can do and be really proud of your matching points and simple quilting. Then you take a practice panel and quilt the dickens out of it so you can get better at the pretty patterns.

I bet your quilt is beautiful.

So far I have only had one quilt quilted and it was OK.