I have a book somewhere that all the quilts are doen that way. I think it is called Utility Quilts. I haven't looked at the book in a while, but I think that it is about quilts that are made to be used on our beds everyday as cover. Much like my mother's and grandmother's quilts. Some of theirs were beautiful, but most of them were used throughout the winter for warmth more than they were for beauty. Actually, they usually had a chenille bedspread on top of them all. And you'd 'better not' be sitting on those beds. When they were raising me, beds were for sleeping in and not for sitting in the middle of it eating potato chips. LOL BTW, I'm 68, so you can see it was certainly a different time.

I have a friend whose mom taught her how to hand-quilt. She was told that as long as your toe didn't get hung up in the stitch at night, then the length was just fine. :)

i used perl cotton and bigger stitches on a very traditional pinwheel quilt for the border. one of my perennial issues with handquilting is that you so often fail to really notice the stitching. the perl cotton and slightly bigger stitches helped immensely to highlight the intricate amish cable design. now i am hand quilting a very modern table runner using sashiko style stitching and it works too. and who could complain about using gorgeous variegated silk threads?

aileen

I did some hand quilting and when I showed it to another quilter she told me I had left my small tacking stitches in. Never again will I hand quilt and be so insulted by a friend. The stitches were 8 to the inch so very tiny.

I've used big stitch quilting very successfully on (abstract) art quilts. Add that to the styles mentioned by other members so far in this thread...traditional quilts, baby quilts, 30's and CW reproduction quilts, primitive quilts, modern quilts...and I think you've gotten the best answer as to what is the 'appropriate' quilt for big stitch quilting. Maker's Choice! LOL

Whatever the quilt 'tells' you:). Lash out and be reckless....big stitch away!

Why would another quilter think they were tacking stitches? I hope it didn't put you off hand quilting if that's what you wanted to do.