Personally, I think too much quilting ruins the appearance. It is overdone and hides the pattern. Sometimes if a little of something is good, it doesn't mean more is better.

I have seen many, many jaw-droppingly gorgeous quilts which were, as you say, "quilted to death". Although it's not the type of machine quilting I do, I can surely appreciate the beauty of the completed quilt, and the artistry and skill required to make it.
It is true that hand quilting typical of the 1800's was also "quilted to death", by necessity, because the batting would lump up if it were not held in place with dense hand quilting.
Fortunately, there's room in this world for all quilting styles and tastes. Vive la difference!

I'm in the "context" category. The skill it takes to do heavy, intricate quilting amazes me. I think it is beautiful, but not always appropriate to the quilt pattern.

I completely agree. One person competing against a longarming team is quite an uneven challenge. Personally, I enjoy all kinds of quilting and quilts. I like the artistry of heavily quilted quilts, but do agree that sometimes it overpowers the piecing. It really does depend on the context, like another posted.

The only bad thing about a beautifully "heavily" quilted quilt would be one's tendency to compare our quilting ability with another's. It can be discouraging... until you realized that whoever you are making a quilt for will love it because YOU made it.
(I personally love those beautiful complicated designs) :o)

Well I havent won at Paducah yet ;) (yet!) But if I did and the piece matched my bedroom, I would slap that quilt on my bed and call it good! ;) Would not matter to me that it won or not, to me it would be the matching or not matching! I have a piece planned for the MQX for next year, am trying to figure out who to give it to cause it will not match my house at all. So it will have a home before it ever gets entered and will go to said home whether it wins a ribbon or not.

Quilt shows are similar to art shows.....it is a personal choice. Not every quilter enters a show and not every artist enters shows. I personally want to enter shows to specifically be judged by a trained judge. I want the challenge of meeting a set of criteria and then exceeding it enough to win. That is a great incentive to me. I understand not everyone is that way, ;) and have no issue with those who do not want the challenges. ;) But dont knock those of us who do! We give ya'll something to look at when you go to the shows!

Most team pieces are long armed by one person and pieced by another person. I have not seen a piece that was long armed by more than one person (will note I have not seen everything there is to see, so it is possible that I havent seen it happen) The reason I see for this is that not everyone wants to do the longarming and not everyone wants to do the piecing. I personally dont find piecing anything more than a means to an end....it is the quilting that I enjoy ;) I piece cause I need something to quilt!

I think it's a case of to each their own. There's room for all quilts. Remember the yarn tied polyester quilts of the 70s?
I have a lot of respect for the skill it takes for some of the heavily quilted quilts I've seen. People are doing three dimensional pictures with fabric and thread. Personally I'm in the "less is more" camp and I like to see quilts where the piecing and quilting are in harmony but then I'm not entering any shows either. There's a world of difference between art quilts and quilts intended for daily use. It's the same as the difference between show cars, race cars and daily drivers. They all have their place.
Rodney

in Feb at my guild show the less quilted applique quilt won first place and the heavily quilted applique quilt won second place and viewer's choice.

not all heavily quilted quilts are stiff, not all winners are heavily quilted, and heavily quilted does not necessarily take away from the piecing especially since some of the heavy quilting is micro stippling or fill designed to push down the background and let the rest i.e. applique appear trapuntoed.

Glad someone brought up this subject.I think the over quilting in the art quilts are beautiful but don't know why some are quilted to death when they are for home use.....Less is better.....

I have seen antique, hand quilted quilts that have very dense quilting on them- much like some of the machine quilted ones of today- each quilt we make is it's *own persona* and deserves it's own consideration- and some people just really like densely quilted quilts- they are not (quilted to death) they are just a different *technique/look* than what YOU may prefer---that's fine for YOU- we do not all have to like them the same. sometimes the dense quilting really 'makes the quilt' I've not had a problem with densely quilted quilts remaining excessively stiff- they always soften up when they are laundered- I have a couple very densely quilted quilts that are very old- their fibers are still fine- have not 'broken down' at all---in fact the only antique quilt I have that the fibers broke down -pretty much disintegrated- was not quilted densely at all- it probably has 2"-3" between quilting lines- and the fabrics between the quilting simply dissolved.