How many of you quilt your own quilts?
 

I always send my quilts to be LA quilted. I have a sewing machine and (not set up) LA table, but have never tried to quilt my own quilts. I haven't even tried to quilt with just my machine alone. It looks like it would take me forever to actually quilt one. I really like piecing and appliqueing and I think if I were to try to quilt, I wouldn't have time to make any new ones. Do most people quilt their own or do they send them out like I do?

I quilt my own, with the exception of one special quilt that I couldn't fit in my machine. It was just to huge. I got lucky, Charismah from the board quilted it and I am piecing her two tops in trade. I've only done one that has free motion in it and everthing else is straight line quilting. I keep one hand quilting project going at all times to.

I usually do my own, unless it is too big (I'm going to start a super King size - that will be too big) OR it is super special - those I send to my LAQ.

My first quilts were all tied, many years ago. More recently, due to arthritis in my hands, tying became too difficult, so I switched to placing bar tacks instead of ties. Next came my embroidery machine, but because of the limited area it would do at one time, it is very tedious to do an entire quilt this way. For my DGKs, I placed redwork designs randomly across the quilts in addition to tying/tacking. I also sent some quilts to be LA quilted, but it is rather expensive to do this. Finally, last year I got a used 15" Bailey.

I am still in the learning stage with the Bailey, but I like being able to finish my own quilts. Budget permitting, I hope to attend the Machine Quilting Expo in Portland, in October.

I do all my own quilting - that's why I make tops. Most of mine are hand quilted, with a few done by machine.

Janet

I have always done my own, can't afford a LA. First hand quilting, now by machine. I just use my regular sewing machines and have done up to king size. I now have a frame but it has domestic machine on it. I like it for the no pinning or basting. Someday I may be lucky enough to be able to afford a used long arm.

I taught myself to fmq on my very first quilt with my Janome 6600, I wanted the project to be all mine! I made cutouts of leaves with freezer paper and sewed around them. I'm now on my 21st quilt and have done all but 2 myself. The first was a queen size that just plain intimidated me, so I sent it to my very fantastic LA Quilter and then I made a King for my bed and had her do that one as well. I've since purchased an HQ Sweet Sixteen and will soon be using that for the first time on a real quilt.

I used to send them out, but gave fmq a try and love it! I now do all my own, and even tho they aren't nearly as pretty or professional looking, the recipients love them!

I quilt the ones that are small, but the big ones go to the lady with the long arm quilting machine!

I hand quilt all my own quilts. Never have sent one to a LAQ, don't really care for the stiffness of the LA quilting.

Except for 1 king sized quilt, I quilt my own. I can't afford to have them done. Of course, I only straight-line quilt---SID or outline. FMQ intimidates me and I have so many quilts I want to make that I won't/haven't take the time to practice FMQing. My quilts are gifts or for Project Linus; I'm not entering them in shows. I do what I enjoy doing. I'm too old to stress myself out on something I don't enjoy. :D Besides, especially for gift quilts, I want them to be all my own.

I do my own start to finish. And I hand quilt them all. I can understand why people would send them out, but for me it's like the quilt isn't really mine. Althought, if I did send them out I could do a lot more quilts. I keep thinking about learning to machine quilt, but I really find the hand quilting to be quite therapuetic.

I do quilt my own. Got tired of never being able to get into a LQS to do mine. I now enjoy being able to walk away from a project, and come back to it when I can. :)

I am a self taught quilter & quilt my own quilts. Until I went to my 1st quilt show I never even realized that everyone didn't do their own quilting! Several years ago I got a Janome1600P that has a 9" throat space to make quilting the bigger ones easier. I am not too fancy, lots of SID & straight lines but I am getting better at FMQ. Piecing is really my favorite part of quilting.

I have quilted my own until I finished making a queen size for myself. I plan on sending it to Charisma for quilting!!!!
PS I have a Bernina 830 also!!!!!!!

I quilt my own with a vicking mega quilter machine.

I have never sent one out. I have a thing about it being all my own work. I now have a LA so it is alot easier.

Way back in the day I used to hand quilt mine but have that's just gotten too tiring & hard to do (can't be because I'm getting old, can it? LOL!). Nowadays machine quilting is so advanced & pretty, I send all mine out & have been quite happy with the results.

I gave up the guilt of not quilting my own a long time ago. I hate and I mean really hate ..quilting anything over a lap size quilt.
So many L/A pros are artists with what they can do, that I will continue to explore and go further with my art of piecing, and leave the quilting to a PRO. I would rather eat mac &cheese , cheap bologna sandwiches , even give up ice cream ( and I really love ice cream) than quilt a big quilt myself.
Sending my quilts to a pro , is the best gift I can give myself

I quilt all mine on my Topaz 30 and before that my Viking #1. I started out doing SND, then FMQ and have now done a few with the embroidery unit on my machine. I like all aspects of quilting, but must admit sometimes I stall when it comes to putting the backing, batting and top together.

I hand quilted up until about 2004, now I FMQ all my quilts, no matter how big they are. I like being able to say I made it and take credit for the whole quilt. I love all phases of making quilts.

I have always sent mine out to be longarm quilted by others - my husband purchased a Gammill for me this past summer and I have been doing some for charity and a couple of my own. I have two large quilts (scrappy) that are almost finished so we will see how that goes.

I never did well doing my own quilting on my personal machines and felt that with all the money and time I had spent in the making of the quilt - I didn't want to ruin them by not having a nice quilting job done on them. I have never been sorry about the money spent and it's been a lot over the years.

I have been quilting since 1998 and have made hundreds of quilts and spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars on longarm quilting. I am hoping to get good enough that I can do longarm quilting for others and make some of that money back.

Right now, I do my own and practice on charity quilts. Each quilt looks better than the last and I am actually getting pretty good at meandering - not so good at pantographs yet - they are very intimidating to me - need to practice more. I will be loading some muslin on my machine soon and will spend some time doing pantographs on it so I can get in some practice - I hate to do them on quilts that people will use. I want my charity quilts to look nice too.

I do my own but I don't do fancy quilting. When I first started quilting I tied mine but the last two or three I have hand quilted. I find it very relaxing. To scared to attempt FMQ with my little machine.

I don't ever quilt any of my own and if i 'had' to - none of my tops would ever get quilted. They all go to the LAQ.

I couldn't afford to have my tops quilted by someone else, and I don't think I'd feel the quilts were quite mine if I did. I recently invested in a Janome 7700, replacing another Janome that wasn't good for quilting. With the help of Leah Day and her Quilt Along, my FMQ is improving rapidly and I'm beginning to enjoy it instead of seeing it as a necessary evil! I keep things simple, and sometimes stick to stitch in the ditch.

I hand quilt all my quilts except for the borders and I machine quilt them. I am retired and I enjoy doing them as
I am in no hurry. It is just what works for each individual. KEEP QUILTING.

I tried quilting my own but even SITD turned out terrible. I don't like that part of the process and like someone else said, I like the pieceing and I love applique. If I had to quilt my tops, I wouldn't have any done. I say, do whatever makes you happy . If I had to quilt my own tops, I probably would stop sewing. Yes, sending them out to be LAQed is expensive but well worth the money IMHO.

i just got a used long arm and am practicing with it. befor that i had a phaff with a 9" throte on a frame and befor that i just stipled using my regular machine. that was a chore. i could never aford to send mine out quilting around here is fairly expensive.

I hand quilt all of mine..Someday I would like to buy a machine I can quilt with, but my $99 Singer just isn't it!!

High 5 to all of that! I would love to learn both hand and machine quilting someday...just not today. :)

I have never sent one of my quilts out...I'm too cheap! I'd rather spend money on more fabric.

I started out hand quilting them all (nearly 30 years ago), but now am fairly comfortable FMQing on my vintage Bernina Record 830. The largest I've done is a queen, but then I don't have a king sized bed in my house. My early attempts were pretty sorry...I started out with table runners and baby quilts, but I'm getting better with each one.

I still hand quilt at least one quilt a year, usually a reproduction or applique one.

I do all the quilting on my domestic pfaff, even king size.
we don't have that many LAQ around here and it's too expensive for me to let one of them quilt for me.
and I'm pretty proud of myself if I can say I did the whole quilt on my own

I do my own. I either hand quilt them or put them on my frame and LA them.

I quilt my own baby quilts and lap quilts. Anything bigger than that goes to Long Arm Quilter! I know I "could" do it--but to me it takes the fun out of making big tops...

I usually do quilt all most of mine. I get an idea of how I want them to look when they are finished and I have to do it myself because I can't explain to someone else how it is suppose to be. I hand quilt some, especially if they are 30's prints or I use my mom's long arm and machine quilt them.

LAQ because I am still learning and not comfortable doing my own. When I spend a lot of money and time on a quilt I don't want to be mad at myself for ruining my own quilt because I am not ready

I do my own and my customers on my Gammill...I love it, it's one of my favorite parts of quilting...

I didn't know I COULD have someone else quilt it until I joined this Board. I have no idea what it costs, but will explore once I move onto anything bigger than a lap quilt!

I took a class at my LQS to learn how to use their longarm, which includes 2 free hours. Once I use up the one-time 2 free hours, it'll be $15 an hour.