Stitch in the ditch is not a cop out. Sometimes, it's real hard to stay in the ditch..... Some quilts dont require any more than SID. As for sending it out for long arm quilting, if that is what you want to do, then do it. There are no quilt rules and you ever find any....break them and do what you want. It's your quilt.

Tell that quilt police person to go jump in the lake. It's YOUR quilt and you quilt it anyway you want. I SID or outline quilt or crosshatch, anything but FMQ. Somehow my hands, eyes and foot do not work together very well at all. ;) As long as I can quilt straight lines, I'm happy. I don't have the money to send tops to an LAer. My daughter recently got a midarm machine on a frame and I've asked her to do some FMQ for me. She's happy to do it for me because it gives her pracitice and she knows I won't be critical if it's not perfect--not that anything she does isn't a lot better than I could do.

Not gonna lie, I probably would have laughed right out loud at such a preposterous statement.

SID is most certainly not a cop-out....I have avoided it at all costs. Not because it is a cop-out but because it really takes ability to do it. Besides totally agree with everyone else, that it is your quilt, your choice on how you do it.

I honestly think a lot of people that make these negative comments like this or the one the churchlady made to Teddybear Lady are made by people that are just plain jealous of abilties they don't have.

This is not true, as said above. It can be hard to truly stitch in the ditch and yes, I do send out my quilts to a long-arm quilter. I had better lock the door so the quilt police doesn't hunt me down.... ducking down now....

Stitch in the ditch is not an easy task; certainly not a cop-out!!! I do mostly FMQ, but sometimes a quilt really needs SITD and it is every bit as difficult and time consuming as any other style of quilting! You just keep doing what makes your quilts complete and don't give another thought to that rude person.

I'm doing SID on my log cabin right now. To make 4 concentric squares on a 9.5 inch square piece takes me about 10 minutes per square. You go too fast, and you get out of the ditch. So because of the time and concentration to do it correctly, it is not a cop out. But I guess I used to see it as a cop out because it isn't as creative as FMQ. It is just following a line where FMQ requires an artistic hand. There are is so much emphasis put on FMQ that many of us have become warped as to what the art is about - the process of creating something beautiful even if it isn't FMQ. I've learned that although I'm really good at some parts of quilting, I don't have an artistic hand at all to do FMQ. I have to draw on all the patterns. So, I will stick with SID, top stitching, and very simple lines that can be done by hand or machine. In the end, it is the end product that matters. So, like others have stated, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and creator. I would ignore her comments and continue doing what you are comfortable with and can afford (I can't afford long arm either - which runs $200-300 here).

I bet I can name someone who (rightfully) will NOT be getting a quilt from you...

I love SITD! I am still trying to learn FMQ. I now do my SITD with my free motion foot and have become quite good at it. I usually send my queen and king size quilts to the LAQ; but if they are smaller or if I need them in a hurry, I quilt them myself and all of my self-quilted quilts have lots of SITD. As of today, I have 4 quilts at the LAQ. I usually plan on her taking 3 months to get a quilt back to me so I am glad I can SITD. It is your quilt. Finish it the way you like and ignore that person.

I really enjoyed reading all the comments about this silly and unkind comment. But I especially liked BellaBoo's ...
yeah, girl, play it for all its worth.