If a quilt is meant as a gift, I do not hesitate tot send it out. I am blessed to have a friend who does LAQ very beautifully and, in my opinion, very inexpensively. I have been working to hone my skills on my sewing machine, but I doubt that I could ever do such quilting as my friend does. I love the cutting and piecing very much, but I, too, dread having to wrestle with a large quilt through a sewing machine.

Have done them all myself on my vintage Singer machines. (tied one that needed to be done quickly). Money was the factor when I started, and my piecing skills were not very good to start with; would not have felt they deserved a longarmed quilting treatment. It's very satisfying to see my piecing and fmq skills get better with each project. I was so excited about quilting my 1st quilt and remember feeling that had truly made me a "quilter" in every sense of the word.

I think that is how I feel also. My hubby does cut most of my fabric for me and I try to give him credit
when giving a quilt as a gift.

Nothing fancy, but I do my own. I have a Voyager 17 and a Hinterberg frame. Got them when I realized there was no way I was ever going to be good at FM quilting.

I sent a few of my first ones out, but cannot afford it now that I am retired. Now I tie, dosimple machine quilting on lap size or smaller, or hand quilt. The hand quilting is not great, but getting better and i enjoy hand work.

Me too. If I did send one out I would feel it's not my own work anymore. I am only just considering doing a QAYG, before it sort of felt 'wrong'.....not a 'proper' quilt. This is not meant to sound judgemental, it's just how I feel about stuff I make.

I have always quilted my own. Hand quilting, on the domestic and now on my longarm. If I didn't own a longarm and I had a large quilt I might send it out. I hated basting a quilt together to quilt on my domestic. I have done queen size quilts on my domestic though. It is hard work and this old achy body doesn't like it.

Life is to darned short to waste your precious time on parts of a hobby that do not give you any pleasure.
I am a beginning quilter but I do really enjoy that final quilting so I do it myself. It is far from perfect but why let someone else have all of the fun. :-)

Quilting is my hobby which I started when I retired. I quilt my own because it is MY hobby and I choose to take it to the finish. I will never be an award winning quilter but I will leave a part of me behind. It I good to have the choice to do what is best for us as individuals.

I am an experienced beginner and send out quilts that are meant to be special gifts. No matter how good my top looks, the lady who does the LA work makes it look amazing. I do smaller quilts on my DSM, usually a crosshatch pattern, or SITD. I wish I had a binder, my hands can't do what they used to!

when I was working and had money I sent my gift quilts to Jackiemo (here on the board) because even a panto would look better than what I could do on my dsm. I simply told her I could only spend $100 on each (full size) and she chose a fitting pattern in that range. I now own a longarm and thread has gone up a lot so I'm sure it would cost more these days.

It depends on the purpose of the quilt and size. If it is an extra special gift, I will send it out. If it is something I would like to do myself, I do it. For instance, I will do lap quilts myself and table runners, table toppers, and small items. I'm trying to hand quilt a few things. It takes longer, but I enjoy hand work. Again, it depends on my mood, size, purpose, and who it is for. I cannot afford to send everything out to have it done by someone else. It is way too much money. I need to be selective.

I have only been quilting a couple years, but I also feel that if I don't do the quilting myself, I haven't made the whole thing. I just looked at the quilting part as of the learning experience just as I did the piecing. I love the challenge and creative aspect of choosing the designs and achieving it on my DSM. Most of my friends send theirs out and have no interest in learning FMQing.

I do my own. But, if I ever get this DWR done, I may send it out. I would want great quilting and I am just an ok quilter. Since I am practicing FMQ often, I may be an expert by the time it gets done. LOL!

I do all my own quilting on my machine. I have never sent a quilt out and have no intentions to ever do so. It's fine if others do that but I enjoy the whole process and I quilt for enjoyment so do the whole thing.

I do my own FMQ on my domestic machine. My machine is a 6600 Janome Memory Craft with 9" harp so that extra 3" harp space makes a huge difference. I love doing FMQ. The hard part is getting the quilt, batting and backing together and stabilized on large quilts but is very doable. I took a couple classes on craftsy and learned some good tips for basting a quilt together. I spray baste and then press over the quilt and that really holds it all together. Once I have it on my machine I totally enjoy the quilting process. I do meandering with leaves, hearts, or flowers and when doing a child's quilt, I always quilt the child's name someplace in the quilt and they have to find it. I just finished giving my 6 year old Grandson a quilt and he's so proud of showing everyone where his name is. I know not everyone is comfortable with this process but that's why we have wonderful longarmers out there.

Due to physical limitations I send out everything. I rarely make anything smaller than a queen size.

:) I do my own quilting -- have done handquilting in the past but have discovered machine quilting, mainly outline stitching, inside and outside of shape, with my 1932 Singer 15-91-- most of the members of my quilting bee have LAs and do their own, mainly meandering through the quilts

Most all of mine go to the long armer, I refuse to try and wrestle with a quilt on my DM. Quick and easy and its done.

Likewise, I don't like to "share" my quilts with a longarm quilter (nor my $$!) I quilt everything myself, to the best of my ability.

I do my own for several reasons...Cost of materials are so high that I would never beable to do as many as I do if I had to pay someone. When I did give a few away that were quilted they are Wow did you do this - the design of the FMQ'ing...I felt odd that I did not...and then my hubby wanted one but wanted me to FMQ it. I said I could not in my sewing machine so he bought me a 7700 so I could...so since then I have done my own. It has paid for its self...

The ones I send out I say _______ quilted my quilt.

I have sent out my quilt for a long time, since I could no long hand quilt. I give the quilter credit but still feel as if they are my own as I picked the fabrics, sometimes designed them, cut and pieced it and usually put the binding on., spending way more time on it than a quilter would. A few years ago I bought as small machine and frame so do some on that and also some on my domestic machine. It just depends on what size quilt it is and how I want it to look whether I send it out or try to do it myself.

I do all of my own quilting now, I cannot afford to have someone else to do it for me.

[QUOTE=joe'smom;6960927]I can't afford to send quilts out (but I think I'd prefer to do them myself, even if I could afford it).[/QUOTE

This is my situation but being disable now forces me to make smaller quilt.

I am in the same category. Some I hand quilt, some I quilt on my Featherweight or my 301A some I tie, and some I send out to my LAQ. Best of all worlds..

Ditto! This is just the way I feel.....plus....I don't know any LA and I know they must charge an arm and a leg.

Have sent only one out to be quilted the rest I hand quilt myself.

I have sent several Queen size out to be quilted but it really is to pricey for me. I have had to stopmakn the large quilts and no do all my own quilting......which is SID or meandering o FMQ. Wish LAQ were affordable for me.

I do some myself and send some out -- I'm in the process of reducing my UFO stack so right now I'm sending one out each month for quilting. Sometimes it depends what is on the to-do list.

I sent one quilt out to be pro LA'd by Green Fairy. I will ALWAYS treasure that quilt. It is extra special to me and I fully consider it MY quilt and even though GF quilted it most of the labor was mine. It is like having a work of art by someone before they got real famous. :o Getting back that quilt from Judi really cemented my goal to become a LA quilter myself. Prior to that I hand quilted and dabbled in FMQ on my domestic. Besides hating the sandwiching part with a white hot passion, I really sucked at DSM FMQ.

As a LA quilter, I for one am very thankful for the experience to help enhance other people's quilts and am very happy that many quilters prefer to do the piecing and allow me to try and make their quilts even prettier with LA quilting. At no time during the process of quilting for others do I even remotely consider the quilting as making the quilt somehow not all by the person who pieced it and sent it to me. Of course, if the quilt is shown it is only right to say quilted by ______ on the label but other than that the quilt was still made by you. I kind of don't get that mindset that if you don't quilt it, it wasn't made by you. Especially for people who have input on the quilting design process. I think of it as planting a garden. Mother Nature helps along the way but don't you consider the fruits of the garden yours? Those flowers would not bloom and crops would not ripen if you did not till the soil and plant the seeds. I think of sending out the same way. Of course the quilt was made by you and there is nothing wrong with sending out. I get to see so many beautiful quilts come across my rack. So many different fabric combinations and things I would never even consider doing but have greatly expanded my way of thinking about quilting, piecing and combining colors. So those of you that send out are also expanding and enhancing your LAQ experience in quilting and piecing as well.

I send mine out,,,,so many,, so little time.:thumbup:

***
*** LA are our of the question for me (income)
*** So I hand quilt all of mine.
***

I only make 2 or 3 in a good year, usually bed size. I send all mine out and do consider them my quilts.
I don't have the time or patience to try to learn how to FMQ, and frankly I don't think I would enjoy it. I want them to look nice so out they go.

I have always quilted my own because I enjoy it, but then I have never made a huge quilt.

I've never sent one to a LAer for quilting because of the expense. If it is larger than I can do on my machine myself I quilt it by hand. Yes it takes longer but I try to enjoy the journey. I love the feel of fabric in my hands so I sit with my DH and quilt while we listen to tv together. I don't get as much done as it seems like most of you do, but I am also not retired yet so I do what I can do (and that's all I can do). When I have my daytimes free I will have time to practice my FMQ and will hopefully will get good enough to try a larger quilt on my DSM. I'd love to master that challenge.

Kassaundra: are you willing to share your secret with us? Sounds interesting.

I always do my own quilting, I used to do hand quilting but now I do mostly machine quilting, I often make up the design as I go, but I am always satisfied with the end result!

I agree here, I like the feeling of doing it all myself, as long as I possibly can. I only have a DSM and can't do anything fancy, but it suits me and no one has ever complained. Smiles and hugs!

I have hand quilted my quilts but now take advantage of having my niece quilt them for me since she now has her own LA. The quilting is beautifully done and the price is right. I feel so fortunate. She has quilted 4 baby quilts and 7 bed size.
She also donates her quilting skills for the "passage quilts" for the local hospital. I have made 8 tops for them recently and she does the quilting.

I started out tying quilts, then started machine quilting on my DSM, quilted by check once, (not in my current budget) and now am experimenting with QAG. I like tying for some quilts, quilting on others and QAG for others. Depends on what the quilt or recipient asks for.