I just discovered the decorative stitches on my sewing machine and tried them out on one of my Castle Crasher Wall Hanging projects...Just wondered if this is cheating? So easy - just guide the fabric so the stitch pattern keeps going straight!

The only difficult part (as you can probably see) is the corners. :P

I was wondering though - is there any reason (besides it being too easy) that quilters don't use decorative stitches more? Does it not hold as well?

No that is not cheating. I love doing all different stiches on my proijects.

Not cheating to me!! Looks really nice. I have an idea for a quilt that uses decorative stitching. Several other projects in front of it though. I hope it ends up looking as good as yours.

I use all kinds of decorative stitches for my quilting! It is not cheating.

its not cheating - thats why the stitches are on the machine

Cheating no - designing yes

I use them all of the time... I also love the way the back sides look too :D:D:D

I sometimes round off the corners with a chalked line, and follow that, it seems to work well with most of the stitches :wink:

It is also a fun way to machine sew the bindings on a quilt.

I've quilted a couple of doll quilts with decorative stitches that turned out really cute. I don't know I'd ever do a very large project just because it uses so much thread.

Edit: I think I also saw a show (maybe Fons and Porter) where they'd even used the decorative stitches to create a design on their fabric. It was pretty cool. I love the stitches.

I don't think it's cheating. I would do it too, unfortunately my machine doesn't have those cool stitches! :lol:

I love all the stitches they add texture

I don't see it as cheating either. I use my decorative stitches all the time.

I use my machine for this because I am a newbie and I dont know how to fmq yet and I paid alot for those stitches so I better use them....lol

Ann Clare beat me to it! Very nice work!!!

That's one of the reasons I bought a new machine, to have more decorative stitches that I can use.

Its like modern day way of doing crazy quilts :!:

It's just a different technique-definitely not cheating

Not cheating, but the reason we don't use them more is that they don't look great on the quilt back and the 3 quilting layers, moving through the machine doing an intricate design, sometimes can make the design wonky.

I mainly would use decorative stitching on the quilt top before it was sandwiched and then it goes through the machine smoothly. Throw in 3 layers, and not so smoothly:>

Nice use of the decorative stitches!

My only complaint is that sometimes the stitch pattern I like doesn't make a big enough stitch for where I want it. I think they are a handy way to add interest.

Not cheating...thats why the stitches are on the machine...to enjoy!

I love my machine's decorative stitches. I use them to bind my quilts. I machine stitch it to the back, then decorative stitch it along the edge to the front. This is lovely, btw. :-)

It's not cheating to me. I think it looks beautiful. I am going to try it.

I can see how that would happen. I tried a few different stitches on a scrap 'sandwhich' and didn't like the way most of them came out. A lot of them you can't make big enough, and some just get messed up working with three layers. I thought this 'surf stitch' came out pretty well going through three layers.

Although, I tried using a walking foot and it wouldn't work. Had to use what my machine hand book calls a 'special foot.' LOL

LOVE this idea, sewtinker! Do you have any pics of your bindings done that way? I would love to see how that looks.

Check this out: http://www.crazyshortcutquilts.com/ Marguerita McManus has great info and videos for using your specialty stitches and setting up sewing spaces. You might like it, and your work looks great!

That looks great! Many sewers forget about their decorative stitches and hardly ever use them, me included. I've started using them exclusively to sew my bindings onto my quilts (I carry over the backing fabric to the front for the binding) and love the added decorative look.

Twilliebee - thanks for that website!

Lady - that's beautiful and not cheating!

I love using stitches like that on my binding.

I have a Janome QC6200, and it does a beautiful job with its walking foot and decorative stitches as the 'quilting' - through the whole fabric sandwich. Have finished lots of quilts this way - even a king size quilt!

I'm a perfectionist. If I see where the decorative stitch is out of kilter even a little, it bothers me. My Bernina also does a great job, it's just that I'm picky.

If being original and creative is cheating - then....

Not cheating at all. I think it's very creative and really adds interest. I love it!

No, you can use whatever stitch you like to hold your quilt together. It adds interesting parts to look at on your quilt besides your beautiful blocks.
Well done. :thumbup:

I think many quilters do not use all of their machine's capabilities. It's really worth it to spend some time trying out all of the feet and all of the stitches. I made a crazy quilted bag when I first got my new Janome 6500 and tried out all of my stitches. It was a great way to experiment and still have something to show for your time. I know quilters who have never even opened their attachment box and their feet are still in the plastic wrappings. I think decorative machine stitching can add a lot to our quilting and it is definately not cheating just plain smart designing.

I use them all the time on my quilts. I think they look nice and they are fun to do.

I use decorative stitches. It took me a long time to find my machine with 300 decorative stitches only for the purpose of that.

Although I have a few quilts patiently waiting for me to quilt them, I only have One of my finished quilts in my home. I give them away as soon as I finish them, it seems... But, yes - I will take a photo later today, and post it for you. If I had to handstitch all those borders,,, yikes. I'm just not a handstitch kind of girl. heh-heh 8-)

No way!! That's why the stitches are there..to use.

I have yet to make a quilt without decorative stitches! I tend to use contrasting color thread as an additional design element to my quilt tops. Sometimes I use a neutral bobbin thread and sometimes a brightly colored bobbin thread. Think most quilt backs are pretty boring. I find people enjoy discovering all the different embroidery designs I use on my quilts. I do use 100% batting which only requires stitching every 10".

Not cheating......... your block looks great.

Think quilters use more fancy stitches on Crazy Quilts... but I see no reason for not using as you did.
Great job... maybe this will inspire other to yous fancy stitches as you did.

If it works good, then its not cheating ha ha. Libby