Will I Ever Love Quilting?
 

I love every phase of quilting except quilting.

I love to shop for fabric, find or make designs, audition fabrics, cut, piece, bind, not really sandwich but it's okay.

My problem is I just really don't enjoy the quilting phase. Granted, I only have a small Janome sewing machine (DC1050) and a couple of mechanical machines, also small. My personality is geared toward doing small projects, but I have done something larger (large throw) which I sent to a friend to quilt.
So far I've only been brave enough to try stitch in the ditch. That feels safe, but boring.

Can you please tell me if quilting gets more fun if I were to invest in a larger machine, or if I'm kidding myself? I sure don't want to waste money. If there's a way to look forward to the one phase that trips me up motivationally, I'd love to know.

Any suggestions? I know I'm not alone. I know there are people who share this feeling of not liking the quilting portion of making a quilt, but wondering if the size of the machine makes an exponential difference. By the time I get to that far, I'm ready to be done with the thing already. I would like for every step to be something I enjoy.

everyone enjoys different phases of the process. some love the quilting, some love the patchwork. send out your small and large projects if you can afford to have them done. there's a lot of people on the board that can help you with the quilting. Maybe it's just not your thing. Don't worry if you don't like that part. You enjoy the other parts of the craft.

For some reason the quilting part is the most stressful for me. I do some free motion and some straight line. Stitch in the ditch takes some practice so the stitching doesn't show on the front. You might try to do some straight line (like cross hatch or parallel lines) using a walking foot to see if you like that. It's more forgiving than stitch in the ditch. Free motion takes some practice so would definitely practice on smaller things. If your budget allows it you can also send out larger quilts to a long armer. I recently got a Janome 8900 with a large throat area and it does make a difference on how easily you can maneuver the quilt around but for years I used a 1976 model Viking to quilt so that's doable too. It may also just always be your least favorite part. Most quilters have at least one part that is in that category.

I would suggest giving free motion quilting a try on the machine you have... and if you end up liking it then eventually you can invest in a machine with a larger harp, or something even fancier (sit down long arm, long arm).

It takes practice and you have to be willing to put in some time. Some people pick it up faster than others.

I love quilting... and piecing....
I love pretty much everything except binding. ;)

I felt like you when I only had a smaller machine----wrestling with the bulk through the small harp space was exhausting, plus I got puckers sometimes because even with the walking foot the machine just wasn't that powerful to feed evenly. Now I have a wonderful Juki, and the quilting part is MUCH easier, but I have to admit it is still my least favorite part!!! But I have never got the hang of FMQ, so just quilt with my walking foot. But I can get some creative quilting with wavy lines, grids, curved lines, etc. but I still send out special quilts to a long arm quilter for that special look I will never be able to do.
So, some of us are "piecers" , not "quilters"!!! And that is OK!!!

I've been sewing for 45 years, piecing quilts for 25, hand quilting for 25, but when I tried FMQ a couple of years ago, I felt like an absolute beginner!! I truly thought I would NEVER, NEVER enjoy it! Because I don't like giving up control of my quilt, to someone else for quilting, and because I can't afford really expert custom professional quilting, I kept trying and practicing. I am no where near "good" at it, but I do enjoy it enough to keep at it, hoping I'll get "good"! Take a class if you can.

I have been "quilting" for decades and have never "loved" the quilting part. I will openly admit I am a piecer. Oh the stress and strain and the puckers , just make me cringe thinking about it. I tied many a quilt to avoid the dreaded machine with that pile and weight of quilt sandwich.
My world changed when I discovered Long Arm professionals. I would eat bologna sandwiches for months, if I had to, just to avoid quilting a bed side quilt on my machine.

I'm not sure anything will make quilting more fun if it's truly something you'd rather not deal with. It's hard to tell from your post if that's the case or not. But having equipment that makes it easier to quilt would at least make it easier, if not fun. I'm not in love with the look of machine quilting the way I am with hand quilting, but I very much want to finish more quilts, so I am learning to machine quilt. I have a Handi-Quilter Sweet 16, and was at first dismayed at how difficult it was to move the heavy quilt around (arthritic hands); but then I learned about the Jennoop quilt suspension system and the Martelli gripper ring, and now I can move my quilt without a struggle, and I do find it fun. I would not have had the courage to try it on a small throated DSM, though. My hat goes off to those that do!

One of the most helpful things I came across was Leah Day's introductory video at her website. She remarked that it takes about 3 quilts to get the hang of FMQ. When I heard that, I relaxed about the process and gave myself permission to ruin my first three quilts. What I mean is, I decided that for the first three quilts, I would just keep going rather than stopping and taking out imperfect stitches. This is also how I learned to hand quilt; I just kept on stitching on that first quilt no matter how bad it looked. It was a learning quilt, so it was okay. Maybe get your FMQ feet wet on a quilt that doesn't matter all that much to you.

Having the right equipment made the difference for me. A long arm that works well makes quilting enjoyable. In the meantime is it maybe possible to have your quilts quilted by some one else?

Many people quilt by check,they have someone else quilt the quilt. This is a hobby,it's supposed to be something to be enjoyed. If you hate to quilt,don't do it. And don't feel guilty for not quilting,Eleanor Burns, Marianne Fons and many other well known quilters have a someone else quilt for them. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us.

I too find no enjoyment in machine quilting so now I quilt by hand even the king size quilts I have made, yes, it takes a long time but so relaxing. Why not try yourself Zozee you may find it suits you better - just a thought!!!!!

I hated the quilting part until I decided to QAYG on my last quilt.

I quilted each block before I began assembling them. Much easier, more control and very manageable.

I'm going to do all my quilts that way in the future.

I loathe the quilting part. I like bed sized quilts, and wrestling that quilt through the machine, and worrying about making mistakes on a top I've worked so hard on is gut wrenching for me. I've done it, but hate it and mostly send quilts out. I would love to try hand quilting sometime. Maybe this summer if I can find someone to coach me through it a bit.

A large throat on a machine will definitely make it easier to maneuver your quilt when quilting. I like the quilting part even though I mostly do straight line, STID, and just recently some curves. I did just "go for it" with FMQ on 1 lap quilt and it looks horrible. I was tired of practicing but obviously need more practice. Ha! For now, for me, straight line and STID works best for me. Try working on small projects (maybe placemats) to see if you enjoy the quilting part more then you can move up to larger projects. You might just need to feel the satisfaction of doing a small piece well w/o a lot of hassle before going to a large quilt. But, hey, if you find you still don't like the quilting part, that's okay too.

Good luck!
Sharon

I can't wait to finish piecing a quilt so that I can start quilting it. I would not have put the money into my sweet16 if I hadn't felt that I loved FMQ on my DSM as well.
The only thing different about quilting on a machine with a bigger harp space is that it is not as difficult to move the quilt around. It is still the same process.
There is a setting and foot for my Pfaff machine called a dynamic spring foot and goes on the dynamic spring foot 6d mode and it is very nice for FMQ. Maybe test drive something like that to see if you enjoy it more.

I too suggest quilting by hand. Since you make smaller projects it might be fun to try marking one with chalk and stencil and hand quilting it. I hand quilt and I enjoy it more than piecing by far. I piece so I can quilt. If you hand quilt I recommend a plastic quilting hoop maybe the 14 inch size hoop. I use a Comfort Thimble. They are out of Oregon and are also sold through several sites online. After trying more than a few thimbles I hope my recommendation saves you some money and headaches if you decide to hand quilt. Also I use Gutermann thread sold at JoAnn fabrics to quilt with. I hope that what ever method you choose for quilting your projects that you enjoy creating.

This was going to be my suggestion as well. You don't need to do intricate designs unless you want to. I find handquilting very relaxing; can do that while watching TV w/hubs in the evening; etc. It's actually one of the reasons I started quilting. I love to do hand work of any type and was getting frustrated as to what to do with the many finished items. How much cross stitch, etc. can you have in your home?

It is hard to say. Have you looked in taking a class at a LQS that you can then try renting one of their LAQ?? I would want to test drive something first before making that kind of investments. Some of them cost as much as a car !! With being disable, it is difficult for me to quilt but I still love piecing so I found someone to quilt my charity tops for me. I am happy as a clam. Now if I could fins someone to do the binding.......

I don't enjoy that part either. So happy when a quilt is finished but still don't like that part of it. Like you I love the piecing. This is why I have so many UFO's. Every so often, I make myself finish one. Usually I just do simple SID or Cross Hatch. I cannot afford to send every quilt out to a LA. That is for those really special quilts I don't want to mess up. Since this is my hobby and I truly enjoy what I do, this is OK with me. Just put your tops in a box so you don't have to see how many UFO's you have collected.

I don't think anyone can answer this question but you. I can tell you what I suspect though. I suspect that if you don't enjoy quilting on your domestic, you're not going to enjoy it any more on a long arm. A lot of folks have this notion that a long arm just magically makes your quilting easy and flawless. That couldn't be farther from the truth. It takes time, effort, and hours upon hours of practice and some determination to overcome the obstacles of frame quilting. The frame itself has it's own quirks, just like any sewing machine, and you have to learn those and learn how to work with them. It doesn't happen overnight. Then, tension is another thing that many folks struggle with. If you don't have the passion or interest to kind of work through those challenges, it could be very easy to walk away from it.

On the other hand you love to piece. You had the passion and motivation to work through the problems that can arise to become a good piecer. So it's kind of the same concept.

But if you're essentially asking if buying a larger bowl of spinach is going to make you love the small bowl of spinach you're not so crazy about...I would say probably not. LOL

You could always try and find a friend who has a long or mid arm and ask if they might walk you through the process...or even quilt something of your own on it. Or look online at YouTube videos. Look at not only the quilting that looks so easy peasy on video, but the loading and trouble shooting too. That might give you a more accurate idea of what you're contemplating getting yourself into.

I can tell you for me, after about eight years I began losing interest in piecing and became more of a quilter on my domestic. I was quilting intricate heirloom pieces on my little Simplicity Quilter's Classic and knew I wanted more. I finally purchased a long arm and I rarely piece now...the things I do piece are generally simple piecing with lots of negative space for intricate quilting. I feel like I discovered my true passion in the quilting process and it began on the domestic...

I too much prefer every other aspect of quilting.. except the "quilting". Hand quilting is more peaceful to me. Sent out one quilt to a long-armer. She did an amazing job and it's beautiful. However, it cost me an arm and a leg and I somehow don't feel connected to it like my other quilts.

If you think it may be your machine, go to some quilting stores (or a quilt show) and play on their machines. But don't beat yourself up over not enjoying the quilting part of the process I have a friend who sews beautifully and her mom owns a quilt shop, so she has access to any machine she could ever want, and she still hates quilting. She loves to create and to piece. There are people who love to bake, but don't love to cook, and vice versa. I think it's just a personality thing.

I have not read thru all of the posts here, so maybe I am repeating. I would suggest hand quilting, or QAYG. I too have a regular domestic machine, so find it difficult to quilt a whole quilt, but hand quilting can be very relaxing. QAYG can be done on small throat machines. Some types do require hand finishing (my personal preference) and some can be done completely by machine. Of course, if you WANT a larger throat machine, go for it.

.....and remember, this hobby was born out of necessity and the " quilting" had a purpose, but it was simple....then it became more decorative and now some of it has evolved into an art form. Find your comfort zone and enjoy....nothing wrong with straight or diagonal lines...let your piecing shine.

I love the process of making the quilt top more so than the quilting of it and I have a long arm machine. Finally had to just push myself into finishing the quilt tops and now I'm enjoying it again. Don't care for frogging though when I have a hiccup with the machine. A 5 minute pattern can take up to an hour to frog. Just ask me how I know.

I suggest you buy this book. One Line at a Time by Charlotte Warr Anderson
It shows how to quilt with a walking foot to make geometric designs. No fmq required.

I feel exactly the same way as you do...

I like the quilting part much better than the piecing part. It did really help moving to a machine geared toward FMQ Are you in southern ca? I'd be happy to lend you my brother 1500 so you could try on a machine that is more suited to FMQ and walking foot quilting.

I began learning to FMQ in order to save the money in order to be able to buy more and more fabric. I do most of my quilting on my little Brother 1500S because I never seem to have any trouble with thread tension on that machine. It was a struggle to begin with, but I feel a lot more confident now. Plus, I do like to be able to know that I did make and finish the entire quilt myself. I know there are some wonderful long armers out there and I will never be able to compare my work to theirs, but I am a control freak, I suppose, and if the quilting doesn't look right I have only myself to blame.

I've been practicing with the QAYG and I know a lot of quilters who only like certain phases of it. I have to laugh thinking back when my Grandmother quilted. She was helping a friend tie. They just took a couple of wood horses and place the quilt between them. BAck then they of course wore aprons. Her friend somehow tied her apron to her quilt. They had a good laugh!!

I have been sewing for over 35 years but just started quilting about 7 years ago. I loved all parts of making a a quilt but the quilting I dreaded. I have a Janome DC2008 ( older version of DC2014). It sews great but FMQ was another story. I only did stitch in the ditch or straight line quilting. I did have a few quilts done by a long armer, but just couldn't afford it anymore.

I wanted to learn to do FMQ and so I bought another machine. I bought a Brother PQ1500S about a year and a half ago. It is a straight stitch machine only with a nice sized throat area. I just recently started doing FMQ on it and I LOVE IT!!! I have done several small quilts and one good sized quilt. They are not perfect and even have a few wrinkles on the back. But I am learning and enjoying it at the same time. The bigger machine made a world of difference for me.

Have you tried QAYG? I am almost done with my first one of that sort and found it much less daunting than quilting a whole quilt all at once. Still a bit of wrestling with on the borders but very much easier overall. Also since you are doing it in stages it seems like you're making progress more rapidly. At least that's what I felt.

I'm new to quilting and just kind of jumped in without knowing much. I bought a cheap small machine to be sure I really liked it. I pieced a couple of jelly roll quilts and then signed up for Free Motion Quilting a Sampler with Leah Day on Craftsy because what I really wanted to learn was free motion. Of course I didn't realize she was using the 2012 BOM from Crafsty so I "had" to make that first (but was really glad I did because I learned alot.) Anyway the class is great and very helpful as far as free motion quilting. I still haven't done the main quilt, I keep getting sidetracked with other projects, but I have done some free motion on some smaller projects.

The first one I did was a Minnie Mouse panel for a friend's little girl. I think it was a good first project because it was relatively inexpensive and I wasn't worried about ruining something I spent a lot of time piecing. If I made a horrible mistake I was just out some time and a few dollars. I just outlined the picture and then went back and added some filler. I didn't have to think about what to do and it was good practice doing different motions and I realized I really did enjoy it. Next I did a Hello Kitty panel as a charity quilt and got a little more adventurous with different designs on it. I think one of the most important things is just to relax. I don't remember where I heard it but someone recommended having a glass of wine before you started. The other important thing is practice I bought some clearance fabric that had designs I could trace to get used to the movements and then just tried out some of Leah Day's designs on muslin. I did have a difficult time fitting everything in the throat of my machine, and I knew there was no way I could do a full size quilt on that machine so I did upgrade machines and that made things much easier. Don't be afraid to give a try, but also don't feel bad if you do and don't like it.

Thank you al so much for taking time to encourage me with your thoughts, advice, empathy, and laughs. I did start the year with the word Embrace" as my theme, so I am going to embrace all your suggestions this year.

1. I have played around with FMQ and really like it but am needing a lot more practice. i will make some placemats for home use that will be my practice projects.
2. I will use my current charity doll quilt, which will have appliqué butterflies on it, to experiment with hand quilting in the negative space. I have a hoop which might be 12"? There's a lot of blue sky in the background .
3. Like a few of you, I want to feel connected and in control of the whole quilt as much as possible. So I won't. Be sending anything to a LA until I am out of my comfort zone completely with the size.
4. I have no desire at all to buy a machine larger than a 11" throat. I'd rather feel a tad disconnected in the quilting phase than to buy a mid arm or larger.
5. Never tried QAYG but the thought of feeling farther along sooner rather is appealing. I'll try it.
6. I'm not sure I'd want a machine that only does straight Line stitching. I do like how
sorry if I forgot any other recommendations.

My mechanical Brother runs when piecing, though....

YOU ALL HAVE BEEN A BIG HELP. THANK YOU!

And I forgot to say, I'm adding "take a quilting class" to the list. Maybe if someone shows me some tricks up close it will help. Besides, it's easy for me to catch someone's enthusiasm in person.

I do think that the size of your throat space has a great deal to do with liking quilting, although I'm not real good at it and I do have a decent size throat space, most of my quilts are fairly large, but one of these days, I'll have the space and money for a Bailey, and while I may never be any good at the actual quilting, at least I won't have to wrestle with the quilt to get it done.

Thank you for stating this so well. I was thinking the same thing, that a buying a long-arm is not a magic bullet and still takes lots of practice and learning. So glad that it worked out so well for you and you found your groove". Sometimes I think while wrestling my quilts through my DMS that I should at least try renting time on a long-arm, but in realty, I know at this point in my life, I'm just not up for re-learning a method for quilting. I do FMQ and when I finish a quilt I'm very happy that I've done the whole thing myself. I'm not a perfectionist and I think that helps in the learning process. But I take my time and some of them really make me feel happy to look at when completed!

ThE Edit option WouldN't let mE make changes after 20 minutes. I didn't notice the screwy wording till after that time limit passed. There are two lines near the bottom that are inverted, but you may have figured that out. If you thought my typing was bad, have you seen my quilting? Lol

I didn't read the middle of this thread but try quilting 1/4" from the seam vs in it. Or, if your machine has a feather-stitch or a serpentine stitch or even a zig-zag, try going right over that seam...much easier. The "big stitch" or "utility stitch" as some call it can have great appeal also..it looks great on all types of quilts from vintage to modern. And a nice fluffy poly batt can be wonderful when tied! for your practice place-mats...its actually easier to do a pretty good sized piece and then cut them to size once you're done. Meandering is a large stipple and both of those are easiest to learn. The next easiest one to learn is the "e's and o's". I do agree if when you do a smallish project (baby or lap-sized) on your machine and its no fun then you probably won't like it more on a bigger machine...bc for smaller projects the limited space is not going to deter or interfere with your "fun quotient" like it might if you had a queen or king under there. In the end...do what makes you happy. The sandwiching process and binding is the part i dislike most but i do it and like you..continually looking for a "better" way to get it done!

I made my first quilt in 1970 and became really hooked on hand quilting . This is the part of making a quilt that I am passionate about. The only part I don't enjoy is the sandwiching of layers. Give yourself a break, you probably will like it more after a while. I have a friend who turns out about 12 big quilts a year but she always sends them to an expert long-arm quilter to finish which is expensive and impersonal. I prefer to do my own. Good luck in your future with this.