I am with you--I personally don't like the close quilting. I like my quilts soft and snuggly. All that quilting takes away from the beauty of the material and pattern for me.
Don't shoot me down either!! Hee Hee Hee!!!

I too like quilts with quilting that allows the loft to show.
I think many quilts I see on display have too much quilting to suit me. I would never make or have a quilt like that. I think the pattern should be the star, the quilting an accent.
To each his own.

Great post. I also enjoy the softer, cuddlier quilt. I am hand quilting a one now that has hi loft batting. I love the way it is puffy....like a comforter rather than a traditional quilt. To each his own.

I have just started to FMQ so haven't developed a particular style yet. However, yesterday I went to an AQS Quilt show in Onalaska, WI and was really wowed by some of the very tight quilting I saw, both hand and machine quilted. So now I'm inspired to so that on a quilt. I also saw a couple of postage stamp quilts that were gorgeous. I never tjought I'd want to make one with all those tiny pieces but now I'm thinking I will make at least one some day. I want to make a quilt out of men's shirts and that would be really well suited for a postage stamp quilt because i could use most of the shirts and have little waste. Also saw a couple of whole cloth quilts that were beautiful.
BTW I spent way more money that I planned but had a ball!

I spoke with a judge recently about this and she said that in 100 years people will know exactly when these quilts were done-----the heavily quilted ones even if they have no label.


Fads come and go in quilting just like other things. I found that fascinating.

Mayday---I know what you mean and as we are both in england I don't think we machine quilt as much at least our group don't,but going to quilt shows lately and I have seen more machine quilting that has so many stitches that they seem to be board like!!

In my opinion, I think the more densely quilted quilts are about texture. The relief areas. And everyone likes quilts quilted differently.

As a longarmer, I have had requests for densely quilted quilts that are beautiful, and those which are sparsely quilted. It depends upon the usage, the recipient, trends, and style of the quilt.

Also, I personally like a heavier quilted quilt. I enjoy the weight and cuddliness of it. However, when I was quilting on my regular Singer, I could not quilt like that - so my quilting was not as dense. I simply didn't have the skillset yet. Now that I have it, I've learned to have the quilting match the style of the quilt and better yet, enhance the piecing. So I have some of both types - the best of both worlds :)

I found in business I had to be flexible to provide all the types requested. Not everyone likes the same things :)

It's all a matter of preferece. I always have the fear that it will come apart & I do quilt rather close sometimes.

Some quilts made back centuries ago are very heavily quilted. These tended to be the wholecloths and welsh style quilts, to my knowledge. Knowing what little I do about quilt history, these must have come from the wealthier families who could afford to spend much time and thread on quilts (to showcase skill?). And these quilts had to have little or no usage in order to survive to this day.

Just another perspective on the topic.

Debbie in Austin

Actually they were quilted very closely to keep the batting from shifting around. Before all the modern scrim and needle punched batting came along, batting was just carded cotton laid on the backing.