Dclutter64

I bet when the first quilt was made with a sewing machine someone said. "That's cheating" lol

captlynhall

I agree the quilter should identify the method. I'm personally not much into machine quilted quilts of any kind, but have seen some stunning machine quilted quilts at the Houston show. Those that have reached the level of 'quilt art', in my opinion, usually could only get there by machine quilting. I can certainly appreciate the skill needed to quilt with any machine, because about the best I can manage is that scant quarter inch seam.

I just feel a personal connection with one that is hand done. Kind of hard to explain, but I feel differently about them.

romanojg

This is one of those different strokes for different folks. It doesn't matter how you do the job, just that you enjoy it and get to do it, your way. We are all allowed to like things and do things the way that suits us. If you are in a show, you shouldn't be judged in a category unless it has the same techniques as the other quilts. But let it go and enjoy the process. The label should include who pieced it and who quilted it, I thought that was required. Maybe they should have sections for each type of quilts. I piece and emb and to most, emb isn't recognized as quilting either.

Its like back in the 70's, when it came out that Millie Vanilli (sorry mspelled) really didnt sing the songs someone else was in the background did. I was sent a thing in the mail saying if I wanted my money back to send back the tape and they'd refund. Well, I didn't send it back because I liked the music, I don't care who sang it. Maybe it should have been made clear who was actually doing the singing but the bottom line was, the music was great. I still have mine and its loaded in my car's hard drive along with most of my other songs. As long as you are enjoying it and its legal, all is good. This is what I tell my kids all the time.

Keep doing it your way and make yourself happy.

carolynjo

This discussion reminds me of the heated discussions years ago when the argument was that quilting wasn't quilting unless it was hand done. I like all quilting except when something is so densely quilted that it will stand in a corner by itself or is skewed out of shape by too much quilting. We all have to find our taste and go with it. It is all beautiful.

Sewnoma

For ME and MY quilts...I do feel like robot quilting is "cheating" a little bit, because it's not something I'm doing myself. I don't send my quilts off to be long-armed for the same reason; that'd feel like "cheating" too.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it and have no objections to it (in fact I think robotic anything is awesome; I love robots!), it's just not what I generally want to do on my own quilts. I take a lot of pride in my quilts when I make them entirely myself start to finish, and having outside assistance from another quilter (robotic or human) takes away a little of that pride. I don't even like using patterns for this reason; I'd rather reinvent it on graph paper (sometimes with some changes, sometimes not) just so I can feel that much more "possessive" of my quilt. If I had easy access to a robo quilter I probably would use it sometimes, but I would feel less attached to those quilts. (Just because it feels like cheating doesn't mean I'd never do it! LOL)

Other people's quilts that are robo quilted don't bother me a bit. I can spot the difference and if I'm comparing two nearly identical quilts I WILL be more interested in the one done manually, but I don't dislike or have any objections to people choosing to robo-quilt. Kind of like machine embroidery - I like the end effect, but if I were comparing two nearly identical embroidered pieces, I'll be more impressed by and interested in studying the one done by hand. And when I use machine embroidery in a quilt I do feel like I've cheated a bit. Not that that's all that easy, either, as I have discovered!

applique

Since I do machine applique ALL my quilts must be custom quilted. With the computerized quilting the prices are a bit better than they used to be! As a side note I had a judge question if my 96 X 86 appliqued quilt was "embroidered"? I never realized that was even possible!

AChristina

I love to machine piece, I also quilt using a computer set up using my sewing machine. I'm not taking a test, so who am I cheating?

SueSew

Whoa, this notion of 'cheating' seems misplaced to me.

It reminds me of when I tried to order some windows from a manufacturer out in the dairy country. I wanted to know why they couldn't make a proper historical style true-divided-lite window. The sales rep scoffed at me and said "You know, we used to make butter with a churn!" She couldn't stop laughing.

I just paper-pieced a zillion HST for my Sue Garman Washington Monument quilt. It was insanely easy and my 1 1/2" HST came together in lovely 16-HST blocks with very minimal tweaking, trimming, etc. when doing the rows and the HST had NO BIAS on the outside of the pieces It was so much easier than the other piecing methods for making HST that I FELT like I MUST**** be cheating! Gotta love it!!!

If I put the Monument in a quilt show, will I have to tell them it was paper-pieced in part? How much of this technique stuff is simply means and methods?

Dclutter64

The whole idea of "cheating" really confuses me also. I am using a tool to get the result I want. My machine is a tool but I am still the one making the design decisions! Sometimes those decisions are not so good other times the are great. It would be the same if I decided to use another method or tool to do the job. So who am I cheating if I select one method or tool over another. Does the person I give the quilt to care? I haven't found one that did! If I use my computer on my longarm or my sewing machine it is not "just push the button and it goes" kind of thing! Even if it was who really cares? Other quilters? I create quilts for my own pleasure and creative process and each one is special to me. That is all that counts.

I prefer to make my own soap from scratch but that doesn't mean I am better than someone that buys theirs from the store! So if you don't like computerized quilting that is fine but I will never feel like it is cheating! I have worked hard to make the most out of it and it has took me a long time to get good at it! I still have lots to learn.

Also it is cracking me up that there are so many people who believe they can tell the difference between a computerized quilted quilt and one that was done free motion. Talking to other longarmers they get their quilting labled as computerized all the time when it is not. I have had people ask me if mine was when it wasn't. I am a longarmer and I can't even tell! Most quilts will have a combination of freehand and computer driven quilting anyway. The only way to really know is to ask me the quilter. There are people that quilt that good!

Grace creates

i really admire those who do everything by hand my first quilt was by hand and then i started machine piecing. that way i get done. i can understand how some may think the machine does all the work, but if that pleases someone and they enjoy computer type of work that is good to. we all create something lovely