What the know it all doesn't know is that a lot of the Amish quilts are not sewn by Amish women. I was reading an article in an old quilting magazine (given to me in a stack of quilt magazines given to me by a wonderful woman that lives a couple of miles away that I met on the board). The Amish women have been farming out a lot of their work to women that came over from Hmong. The Amish churches, and Mennonite churches sponsored Hmong families, and found that they did beautiful work.

Just as a side note regarding "Amish" quilts. Recently my sister and I did our own little shop hop in Amish country visiting every quilt shop we could. We had so much fun! We stopped at a restaurant that had BEAUTIFUL quilts hanging up for purchase. Almost every one had a sign attached saying it was not done locally!

I'm glad you were able to hold your cool. When I talk to the experts, I just listen to them and let them talk. If they say someting I don't know about, I take the conversation there.

Great advice! I usually just try to change the subject. I think its the hotflashes getting to me..I'm new to them

That's a "bless her heart" moment! LOL LOL BTW -- I went to the "Amish country" last year. I was amazed how many quilts were "Amish" and for sale. I finally asked the local shop owner how many Amish were in the area........that it amazed me they could HAND piece and HAND quilt so many quilts! She admitted they use treadle sewing machines....AND that they are not all done by the Amish! She said ANYONE that will piece or quilt by hand or treadle can have their quilts labeled "Amish".....SO -- though I thought their quilts were gorgeous, and I'd love to have one, I'm not quite as enamored when someone says they have an Amish quilt. :) :)
As for that Quilt Cop ---- Bless her heart.....she must be lonely and needed to yak...........though she's wrong on so many levels!!!

There is a discussion going on at one of the quilt history sites about "When is a Quilt Amish". The discussion centers around the so called Amish quilts being partially made by the Hmong people in Pennsylvania. Aparantly they are hand appliqued by the Hmong and hand quilted by the Amish and advertised as Hand Quilted bt Amish.
So, ask her if you should see her again if she is sure her Amish quilts are totally made by Amish quilters.

So, I read where a singer has to sing and a painter has to paint. Got me to think. What if you were a painter and took a painting of yours to someone's house? Would they inspect it and judge it and say it wasn't a real painting because of some foolish reason about all the famous painters painting in Paris in the twenties? Or if you sang and they said you didn't sing correctly? How come people feel they can come down on us with our craft...which most people know less about than painting and singing...than they would a painter or singer? They know it would be rude to say something negative to a painter or singer...they have common sense, but not when it comes to quilting and they usually know nothing about quilting at all. Like, do you know the easy way to make a 9 patch? They probably think you have to sew all 9 pieces together each time. They don't know about 1/4" seam. They don't know about setting seams. About jelly rolls. About DNP. Snowball blocks. Nothing.

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when you told her off. I personally love to annoy the quilt police if I have the opportunity. Sometimes I'll create a project just to watch them cringe. LOL

Those are the times when I love to say "thank you for your opinion, but if you will excuse me, I am busy" - not really what I am saying in my head, but those words generally come out of my mouth.

First - I quilt w/ a group of Methodist women, and one of the women had brought in a quilt that her mother had had quilted by the Lutherans - because "the Lutherans quilted better than the Methodists"!!! LOL!!! We all get a good laugh from that every now and again. The mother has since passed away, but trust & believe, when we reminisce about her, we always bring up about how we don't quilt as well as the Lutherans!! :) :)

Second - this summer, I was up in Holmes Co, Ohio and was looking at the Amish quilts for sale. While their quilting was beautiful, the fabric choices were so-so for my taste ~ they all had polyester batting in them :( I just felt that it cheapened the final product.

The poly batting thing is my opinion - but still...