Am I correct in saying I made a quilt if I pieced the top but had someone else machine quilt it? Thanks.

I consider you a quilter.
Happy Quilting!

Yes. Many people don't have time or equipment to quilt their items. That's why we need longarm quilters.

In my book you made it!

Thank you. I am new at quilting and just wanted to make sure I was being honest with everybody when I said look at the quilt I made.

if you cook supper but someone else serves it, you get credit for a good supper. yes you made a quilt!
you can give the quilter credit for helping you pull it all together but I say it's mainly you baby!

The Quilt Police will say you're the piecer not the quilter. But, luckily the quilt police aren't really welcome here;>

The only time is becomes an issue is if you're entering it into a quilt show, even a small local one, whether judged or not.

It is both courteous and professional, and the right thing to do, to give credit to the longarm-er (is that a word?).

However, I've seen labels without it. Not so polite, but not an "arrestable" offense. Sometimes it's from Grandma to Grandbaby and, understandably, Grandma didn't feel the need to add LongarmMary to the label.:D

But you most certainly can consider yourself a quilter.

I love this anolagy :D:D:D

Me too. :thumbup:

If you make a loaf of bread do you say its not home made because someone else ground the wheat or churned the butter?

I've wondered about this. When the show judges it, what are they judging? The quilting or the piecing or both? If both and it is quilted and pieced by two different people, do they share the ribbon?

Yep, you made it.

It depends on the show. Some smaller guild show allow everyone to enter each category. Some have separate categories for "Duo" or "Collaboration."
Sometimes there is a "Group" category, along with Round Robins quilts. If they're going to be broken out, I prefer Duo to Group.

The judges are judging both, really, You could have a gorgeous pieced top, but if some royally screwed up the quilting, then it will affect the overall finished quilt. The opposite is also true. Someone could have a simple "Yellow Brick Road" top that was quilted by a master quilter.

If it's a Duo quilt, there might even be 2 ribbons. If not, the ribbon goes to whoever submitted the quilt for the show.

Now, the big shows - Houston and Paducah ..I don't think they break it out because they're looking at the overall quilt. I'm thinking specifically of the Beatles and Space quilts by Nichols/Holly - both quilts won at Paducah. Also, there's the duo with the sparkles - Cherry something. Can't remember her name.
Doesn't Marilyn Badger also work with a partner on competition level quilts?

I believe most shows would judge both the piecing and the quilting, unless it stated otherwise. Some shows do give two ribbons, one for the piecer and one for the quilter. Some shows only give one ribbon - usually to the piecer. I have had some quilts that I quilted for customers win ribbons in shows that only give one ribbon and the customer will give me a picture of her quilt with the ribbon attached. I enjoy this very much. I have also been awarded a ribbon for a customer's quilt that the show gave two ribbons one for the piecer and one for the quilter.

I machine sew all my quilts and then have them sent out
to the lady who does Longarm quilting. I always list that
I machined pieced the top and the name of the person who
does the Longarm quilting on my label. Betty

Off course

That's why I very seldom have someone else work on my quilts. I like to say that I made it all myself.
Using the "cooking" analogy, if you mixed up the cookie dough & someone else baked them, would you have made the cookies? Something could go wrong in the baking, and by then it's too late.
It takes longer to do it yourself, and sometimes it's not convenient or easy, but in the end then you're the only one responsible for how it turned out.
Just my preference, I guess. I've had mostly good experiences working with long arm-ers when I did hand some of my quilts over to them to add their creativity, BTW.
And I don't enter judged shows. I just quilt for myself & for gifts.

And you devised the recipe for the cookie dough all by yourself?
No?
So all you did was mix a bunch of ingredients together?
Well, now, how hard could that be?

:lol:

I'm just saying.....

I like your way of thinking :)

Thanks for asking this question - I wondered also

This message really hit home for me - I finally finished the top to my scrappy log cabin for my husband only to find out he has a very aggressive form of cancer, small cell. I was going to try and guilt it but not sure I can because of the size and not sure I'd have the time to finish it. I so want him to have it so am thinking of sending it out so he can use it. Glad to know it will still count from me.

I would say I made the quilt, but xxxx quilted it. That info is also on the label. The quilter is an artist too, and deserves to have her work recognized on the label.

And there is definitely more to a quilt if you made up the block design, or designed the arrangement of the blocks yourself ("devised the recipe") versus taking a pattern from a book, but that's another discussion.
I said it was just my preference to finish the quilts I make, unless time or another factor enters into the decision, and there are lots of opinions posted. Thanks for sharing yours. I mostly read discussions; very seldom comment on them.
Many/most like to use long-armers, and I do, too, on occasion.

From a person who does hand quilting for others...I don't mind if my customers say they "made the quilt", but when someone bends down and closely examines the quilting, and asks, "Did you do the quilting too?" They'd better give me credit! Ha! I usually write something like, "Thanks for giving me the privilege of helping you complete your beautiful project" on the bill. I love helping them bring their hours of creative work to life. Watching quilting shows, like Fons & Porter, they usually say who pieced the quilt and who quilted it for them. But the quilt would never come into existence without the care and planning put in by the piecer. The piecer is the creative brain behind the quilt, the quilter just puts on the finishing touches.

Actually, it's exactly the same discussion.

If someone doesn't applique because they dislike it, do they get disqualified as a quilter?

Why do people have to buy charm cakes and jelly rolls? If they're quilters, why the heck can't they cut their own darn fabric? Are they really quilters?

Shouldn't a quilt that's done on a domestic sewing machine be judged differently than one that's done a long-arm, because one must be easier than the other? Hmmm, tell that to Diane Gaudynski and Sharon Schamber.

It's ridiculous.

The actual quilting is just one part of the process.
If someone wants to send out their quilts, that's fine.
It doesn't make them any less of a quilter.

And it doesn't make someone who does it all by herself higher up on the "quilting" food chain.

Unless, of course, you're Diane Gaudynksi or Sharon Schamber. :lol:

When the quilt is quilted at a Quilting Bee or Quilting Group it still is made by the person who pieced it. Many of my vintage quilts were quilted by the local quilting group or church quilting group.

Actually, I think a more accurate analogy would be if you made a good dinner and someone else set a great table, plated the food and did the styling and made a great dessert. If you don't do the quilting, it's like you walked away and left the pots on the stove. Your top may be absolutely breathtaking, but you can't claim you made the whole quilt yourself if you didn't. But I'd still call you a quilter.

Just one more comment from a custom quilter...If a person completes a top, but doesn't have the skills to quilt(or just plain doesn't like to quilt)they should not feel guilty or feel like any less of a quilt maker if they don't do everything from start to finish. Like the previous post says, traditionally women have always helped others quilt their quilts. Asking one (or 12) of your friends to help is just continuing that tradition. The bottom line is what brings you fulfillment. Some start by dying their own fabric, others buy precut kits with everything coordinated for them. Both are quilt makers. I love hand quilting but that doesn't make me more of a quilt maker than one who doesn't. Having grown up in a family and church that regularly hosted quilting bees, that is one part of American culture that I wish we could restore...women getting together to talk about their lives and support each other in a more daily way.

After reading the replys, I just was so surprised. If you pieced the quilt, you are the piecer not the quilter. All of the old quilts that I have looked at that have a label on and are made by a "Quilting Group", the name of the group is on it and sometimes the names of the people in the group. Everyone has to do what is right for them and there is no criticism ment. In my mind, if you didn't sew the "stack" together, you did not do the quilting you did the piecing.

I appreciate your question and know that it must be bothering you, possibly because a member of the quilt police came to your guild and accused all who have a long arm artist quilt their tops or a group of hand quilters quilt their tops, "toppers."

"You are not quilters," the one who came to our guild meeting asserted.

There is a cure for ignorance, but none for stupidity. No matter that she had a national reputation as a teacher, I thought then and think now that she was stupid.

Of course you are a quilter/artist if you make the top. You hire a collaborating artist with another set of artistic and technical skills to finish it.

That's called specialization and division of labor and it's the way the modern world works.

Are you any less the owner of your car because you don't change the oil? Because you don't replace the brakes when needed? Because you take it to the detail shop to get it cleaned up?


As Nero Wolfe would have said, "Phooey!"

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

I think this is really semantics. Some folks have pet peeves with terminology. Who cares if you're a piecer or not? As long as you enjoy the hobby and create tangible items that you enjoy, that's all that matters.

Some ladies I've met have presented their quilts (to me and others) as quilts they've made, answering "..took it to so and so to have it quilted." I had the impression that it's understood if one puts the top all together, she's made the quilt! Having it quilted and bound by someone else is almost incidental!

I like how you replied. If I pieced the top and had it quilted together by someone else, I would say, up front, that I pieced it and someone else did the quilting. It's only right to tell it as it is. But that shouldn't take away from the pride you should have in your work!

Sure you can...but it is nice to give credit to your LA quilter if you put their name on the label and on the entry forms for any show you put it in. A good LA quilter can enhance the beauty of your quilt and really make it shine!

Most shows ask that the piecer and the quilter be listed separately, or Pieced/Quilted by one person.

You are a quilter

Our guild gives ribbons to both the piecer & the quilter, but generally speaking the ribbon goes with the quilt & that means the person who entered it or won it in a raffle.

In our quilt guild we have "Toppers" and "Quilters" and then some of us do both