To each his own, I say! I tie my quilts! But you do have to be careful with the batting....some tell you how close the ties have to be....my latest one is every 2 - 2 1/2 inches!! I like them 3 - 4 inches. Anyway....do it your way!

Guess I am guilty, before I relised that to close quilting would make it stiff.

While I agree with your thoughts, I think you may have forgotten the chief reason for quilting. I don't think it is to keep people warm, although they do. My chief reason for quilting is to fulfill my inner need to show my artistic side and spread my love of quilting. I have a quilt on the back of my sofa that was the last thing my dear neighbor made before she passed away. Although it doesn't keep me cuddly warm, it warms my heart every time I look at it or use it. I think that is the chief reason we have them in our lives. If I want to make a warm quilt I use flannel and fleece and only loosely quilt it.

I think a lot of quilts that are densely quilted are meant to hang as pieces of art, not to be used as quilts on a bed. I think after a person has enough "user" quilts, they tend to try for something that will display well on a wall. Just my opinion. Neither way is wrong, it is just the intended purpose of the piece.
I also tend to use wool batting and lighter weight thread if I intend to quilt heavily.

I have to agree with all the comments today and have one more observation. Thick and fluffy describes a comforter not quilt. IMHO Quilts and quilt batting are much thinner and less fluffy unless you use a really thick poly batting.

This seems to be the trend in the "ART" quilts. Whenever we have an award winner quilter, talk at our guild, the quilts are done to wilthin an inch of their life.

Some quilts are made for artistic expression, to look at. They add wonderful dimension to the decor. When I make a quilt for the bed, I like to consider how it will look on my bed, does it work with the room. For warm, wool batt is so friendly, light weight, warm in cold weather and cool in hot weather.

Sometimes I just get carried away with how much fun I'm having!

I also will over quilt if I have some waves or lumps or something that I want to get out....
Works for me, but normally I like the look of the puffy quilt.

Roxanne

I think quilts with a cotton batting tend to be cold, too, little boy! I made a quilt recently with a wool batt, and it's so cozy and warm! It's a bit puffier that cotton, and it wan't quilted to death so it's really soft. Try it - I'll bet he likes that one the best!

I am so glad you asked this question. I have only been quilting for a few years and when I first joined one guild and saw all that dense quilting it was all I could do not to say how I thought it destroyed the whole look of the quilt. Now, I'm just learning how to free motion quilt and am happy to know that it will soften up once washed! (I also have learned to appreciate the dense quilting more!) I still prefer the hand quilting but I'll never live long enough to make all the quilts I would like to if I don't learn how to do machine quilting!