plainpat

I wouldn't fit in either section, but that's ok.I quilt for myself & other opinions are not important.

liminanc

I quilt mine by hand, but that is a personal preference. I also sew a lot of it together by hand, sometimes using the machine. So much is personal preference, my quilts are far from perfect, but I enjoy doing them and I think that is what it is about. I couldnt imagine paying someone to longarm quilt my quilt, I am much too cheap lol. I use my mat and rotary cutter, but when that is not available I will make up a template out of paper and cut with my scissors. I dont buy too many gadgets, once again the cheapness factor working. I also have 1 sewing machine, and I use an old one of my sisters when I am staying at my mothers.

Jackie D

When I first started quilting in 1975, I did it all by ha nd, the piecing and quilting, made my own templates, everything. Then about 8 years ago I decided if I wanted to make all the quilts, I want to make, I better get busy!! So I learned how to use a rotary cutter, bought me a featherweight and I was off.Im loving it. There's no way I would have gotten all the quilts made I have made in the last 8 years, and Im still going strong. If I live to be 100 I still won't get all the quilts made that I want to, b ut thats ok, I've come alot closer.

moreland

I love the quilts my MIL did--sewn on her treadle and hand quilted, but if that was the way I had to quilt, I would not be quilting. I like the "Modern" and have no problem with using whatever is available to me.
I saw the hand cranked sewing machines while visiting in Zimbabwe, but I am puzzled as to how you manage your fabric pieces with just one hand?

grann of 6

I don't know if it is better or not. We are certainly improved. I remember having a party line telephone, and even a time when we were out in the country without a telephone. The State Police had to come to get my mother and me when my grandfather had a heart attack. Having a telephone and all the other things we now enjoy to improve our lines of communication have made our lives better. We have become spoiled with having everything "instant" or immediate. So quilting would just follow that line. We have done it to ourselves. It certainly is easier to be able to run to the store and get a template for a particular quilt block, or print it out off the internet. Many older (old) people resist change, I for one try to embrace it as much as I can. But I still hang onto those old fashioned memories I have and cherish them.

117becca

i'm a hand quilter - machine piecer if at all possible and probably always will be.

But, i just finished piecing a quilt that my grandmother cut out(she died in 1945) - diamond shapes and i just "knew" i was going to have to square up those diamonds!

I didn't! And they were just as square as the others i cut out using my rotary cutter! It was also neat to see the pencil lines on the pieces.

BTW - I also feel quilt shows need to have separate categories. I am saddened that i don't see more hand quilted quilts. Hmmm - maybe i'll enter one???

Maride

Quilting in the long arm is no different in creativity than quilting with a domestic machine unless you are talking about the computarized ones that do it for you. I don't see creativity there either. They argue that is hard to load, etc but the machine does the rest.

I think that modern tools don't really speed up the process because many quilters still take months/years to get their quilts done. It will always be dependent on how much time you put into it. I am sure if our grandmothers had the technology we now have, they would have used it. Using a treadle machine was high technology back then.

Like everything, as technology advances, so it the way we do things. Quilts will last for years depending on how well constructed they are no matter if they were made in a treadle, a modern machine, or by hand. It will also depend on the quality of the materials used and the abuse it receives, again, no matter which way it was constructed.

Everything changes. I wouldn't want my Dr to go back to the way they did things 100 years ago; we enjoy having medications that solve our health problems, televisions for entertainment, etc. Society always embrace the new technology, the only difference is that back then it was simpler, but nevertheless, it was the most modern they had at the time.

dojo36

yes i love the new in everything modern. heck with that old way of doing anything. if we had to go back to the old way of quilting, then we'd have to also milk the cows every morning, cut our wood to stay warm in woodburning stove, haul our water up out of the well outside, heat our water on that wood burning stove, do our laundry outside on a wash board, hang it all from a rope tied to 2 trees, hitch up the horse & buggy to go to town, go outside in the dead of winter to use the outhouse, but have a chamber pot beside the bed for just liquids, dig a new hole and move the outhouse every couple years. no thanks - i'll take everything computerized and modern, bet some of you younger ladies don't even know about some of the above things. nice to look back and remember - but even nicer to have all the modern stuff. so i'll now go take my nice warm shower at a flick of the faucet handle, have a nice day yall.

Annasgrannie

If it weren't for the new, some of us would never have discovered the wonderful world of quilting. You can't put a value on the wonderful feeling that this art provides--whether our points meet or they don't. The new allows us to accomplish the old.

Iamquilter

I AGREEE WITH iZAQUILTER. i DO NOT LIKE THE LONG ARM QUILTING. I prefer to hand quilt and do it all the time. I have three albums of quilts that I quilted for other people. I always take pictures of each quilt I quilt for others and quilts I make for myself or to give away.
Bea