Skittl1321

I don't see the difference between hiring someone who does it as a business and having your friend with a mid-arm do it. I would say friends with mid-arms who quilt for free are few and far between. Maybe I don't have the right friends...

Someone who does it as a business -might- be a better quilter than someone who does it as a hobby (there are some really great hobbyists out there and some really crappy "business" quilters, and the other way around too). If you want to show a quilt you would definitely want to find someone with exceptional quilting ability.

For me, I can't afford to hire a long-armer, so my answer is never.

Tartan

I handle most smaller quilts by FMQing them myself. If I have a large one that I want done special, I send it to a long armer. It is totally worth it to me to save my back and shoulder from trying to stuff a big quilt through my limited harp space on my domestic machine.

GrannieAnnie

I love the "quilt by checkbook" I've got to remember that.

Lori S

Why.. ? because its a wonderful gift to myself... I love piecing .. the quilting ... not so much.

MadQuilter

Not everyone likes to quilt.
Not everyone can handle the quilting on a HSM
Not everyone can do the fancy patterns.

I have only sent one quilt out - early in my quilting journey. Now I need to do it all, start to finish, or I can't label it "Made by Martina"

momto5

When...because you want quality work; why, because you love your LA'er and want to keep her around! LOL!

Elaray

I enjoy piecing more than quilting, mainly because I'm terrible at quilting. (I'm relatively new to quilting.) However, I've done my own quilting because I want the work to be all mine. But, I use published patterns, so the work really isn't all mine, is it. I think if I were more experienced, I might use a pro LAQ.

Xtgirl

I have customers that say having a long arm quilter enables them to have time to piece more tops.they don't have the space/equipment to quilt their quilts and are happy to move on to the next project. They put a lot of work into their tops and want to see them used...this makes the turn around process from quilt top to usable quilt faster.

AliKat

I agree with Dunster.

However, I have a midarm and know of several who also have midarms and they do beautiful quilting. Mine even had the computer option so I can download quilting patterns off the internet and then do whatever I might want with them.

My midarm can go to almost 10 ft in one direction. Some of the gals I know have theirs out to 12 ft. So we can do almost all quilts. Please don't discount us.

ali

burchquilts

Ditto. The only decision I have is which LA'er to send it to (some have a larger variety of quitling patterns, some are cheaper, some are faster, etc).