I'm an addicted hand quilter and I quilt all kinds of patterns: straight line, motifs, borders, Backgrounds...I love them all. And I also do "free hand motion quilting", too!

Just had a look at your gallerie. What beautiful hand quilting, you must have great eyesight. :thumbup:

Thank you for your nice comment! I'm very short-sighted and I need my glasses for nearly everything. For quilting I have special glasses, normally used for working at the computer. They work fine for me! Good light (the best is natural daylight) important also.

I am mostly a hand quilter, but have recently purchased a mid-arm and frame. I do some easy, fast quilts on that... baby quilts, wall hangings, table runners, etc. But for important projects, I stick to hand quilting.

As for machine quilting, I did have a problem with holding my breath and getting dizzy, but over time it went away. Meandering is more relaxing and helped me get over that.

I've been hand quilting since 1975 and have taught across the country. Maybe it's because I've been doing it so long that it's my favorite. I've noticed lately that there are fewer and fewer hand-quilted quilts in quilt shows, and that makes me sad!

:thumbup:

I only do quilt as you go. I don't have the room or the nerves to quilt my own. I love to piece. I ususally take my quilt tops to my LQS.

Some LQS rent out their long arm quilting machines so you can quilt your own at their stores. Ask your local store.

This is a suggestion I haven't seen mentioned here for those have trouble with puckers when SITD. If your machine has adjustable presser foot tension, you might try loosening that some so you presser foot isn't putting so much pressure on the extra layers. Just a thought.

thanks for the tip - I am sure that it is a case of finally hitting upon the correct tension number. there sure was a lot of good ideas here and I will definitely try them the next time I am brave enough to try once again. :lol:

I used to have few puckers on the cross seams after I had SIDed all of the lines in one direction and then quilted the other direction. The only thing that prevents those is if the sandwich is really taut and has no wiggle room to shift side to side.

If you pucker on the initial seams, then your idea might work.

I love your Avatar, I enjoy all sorts of quilting, Longarm, my reg. machine both SID and FM I have also done hand quilting. I am not really good at hand quilting but when people see your quilting they will love whatever you do. I think quilts sholuld be made with the person you are making it for not what prize you may get.