A crafts forum. CraftBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » CraftBanter forum » Textiles newsgroups » Quilting
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Local quilt show: observations



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old August 15th 09, 06:25 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
John
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 711
Default Local quilt show: observations

Let me start off with a disclaimer. If any of you are offended by my
observations, then I am sorry. If you derive pleasure from the things
I am commenting on, then go ahead and continue to enjoy them. My
opinions are my own, and "might" coincide with others, or maybe not.
That stated, herein follows a brief recounting of todays visit to the
local yearly quilt show.
Lois and I showed up at the local show and started viewing the
offerings from large bed sized quilts to small wall hangings and items
of apparel. The one thing that struck me, and Lois, was the fact that
the degree of overall quilting by machine was of a singular nature.
This observation applied to about 75% of the quilts. The other 25%
were hand quilted, and this observation does not apply to them. They
were very nicely done.
As to the 75%; I have never seen as large a group of quilts, in my
life, that were done in such a random manner that defied the sewn
seams of the pattern, of the quilt. It is as if the person doing the
quilting, and some of them were "professionally" machine quilted, and
they used that word "professionally", loosely, in my opinion, was
insensitive to the fact that they were crossing over the seams of the
pattern of the quilt on autopilot in an effort to confuse attempted
artistic random loops and squiggles, in the guise of art, and not
respecting the pattern seams as defining elements of the quilt. Now if
this is the new norm and I am completely out of step with State of the
Art Free motion quilting, then so be it, I am out of step. If you look
at the other 25% of the quilts that were hand stitched. they used
overall quilting in the appropriate seam bordered elements of the
pattern and stayed within the confines of the seams and produced a
quilt that respected the pattern design and complimented that with
area quilting which enhanced the overall appearance. Out of probably
35 Machine quilts, I think there were probably 2 or 3 that met the the
above criteria of respecting the seams, and not going over them
randomey, in an attempt to achieve, I don't know what. It is almost as
if people take a class on free motion quilting and then throw away all
the time honored traditions of using quilting and stippling within
area elements that respect the seam lines of the sewn pattern, and
throw themselves into the process of random placement of the needle on
autopilot. Thank you very much,but I think I will get on the other
bus, on this show.
So there you have it. My personal take on the recent, and not so happy
viewing of the state of the art of Machine quilting, as it pertains to
Knox County, Ohio. And once again, I hope that I have not stepped on
any toes here. Or otherwise raised any hackles.

John

Ads
  #2  
Old August 15th 09, 07:28 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
Louise in Iowa[_6_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 335
Default Local quilt show: observations

John - no offense taken here! I went to a quilt show last year where I saw
much of the same as far as machine quilting. On the other hand, at another
show, I saw more examples of machine quilting being done in a manner than
enhanced and complemented the piecing, so that kind of work really is being
done.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that it's not always the machine
quilter who chooses the quilting design (this applies to those quilts done
by a "professional"). Sometimes, for instance, the piecer tells the machine
quilter that she wants to spend no more than a certain amount of money. The
quilter then has to determine what kind of design she can use and still make
money. Many times that is an edge-to-edge design or a form of meander. The
piecer would get a more custom-designed quilting job if she wanted (or was
able) to spend more money, but budgets don't always allow for that. Other
times, the piecer specifically requests the kind of design you're
describing - they want something that will hold all three layers together
and nothing more. And, quite honestly, it appears there are piecers who just
don't know/understand that their quilt could be even more beautiful if an
appropriate quilting design were created for it.

In an ideal world, every piecer would have an unlimited budget for the
quilting portion of the project and the machine quilter would find the
perfect quilting design that would show off the piecing and make every
piecer the star of the quilt show!

I'm looking forward to our local show this fall - will be interested to see
if the trend is toward overall designs.
--
Louise in Iowa
nieland1390@mchsi dot com
http://community.webshots.com/user/louiseiniowa


"John" wrote in message
...
Let me start off with a disclaimer. If any of you are offended by my
observations, then I am sorry. If you derive pleasure from the things
I am commenting on, then go ahead and continue to enjoy them. My
opinions are my own, and "might" coincide with others, or maybe not.
That stated, herein follows a brief recounting of todays visit to the
local yearly quilt show.
Lois and I showed up at the local show and started viewing the
offerings from large bed sized quilts to small wall hangings and items
of apparel. The one thing that struck me, and Lois, was the fact that
the degree of overall quilting by machine was of a singular nature.
This observation applied to about 75% of the quilts. The other 25%
were hand quilted, and this observation does not apply to them. They
were very nicely done.
As to the 75%; I have never seen as large a group of quilts, in my
life, that were done in such a random manner that defied the sewn
seams of the pattern, of the quilt. It is as if the person doing the
quilting, and some of them were "professionally" machine quilted, and
they used that word "professionally", loosely, in my opinion, was
insensitive to the fact that they were crossing over the seams of the
pattern of the quilt on autopilot in an effort to confuse attempted
artistic random loops and squiggles, in the guise of art, and not
respecting the pattern seams as defining elements of the quilt. Now if
this is the new norm and I am completely out of step with State of the
Art Free motion quilting, then so be it, I am out of step. If you look
at the other 25% of the quilts that were hand stitched. they used
overall quilting in the appropriate seam bordered elements of the
pattern and stayed within the confines of the seams and produced a
quilt that respected the pattern design and complimented that with
area quilting which enhanced the overall appearance. Out of probably
35 Machine quilts, I think there were probably 2 or 3 that met the the
above criteria of respecting the seams, and not going over them
randomey, in an attempt to achieve, I don't know what. It is almost as
if people take a class on free motion quilting and then throw away all
the time honored traditions of using quilting and stippling within
area elements that respect the seam lines of the sewn pattern, and
throw themselves into the process of random placement of the needle on
autopilot. Thank you very much,but I think I will get on the other
bus, on this show.
So there you have it. My personal take on the recent, and not so happy
viewing of the state of the art of Machine quilting, as it pertains to
Knox County, Ohio. And once again, I hope that I have not stepped on
any toes here. Or otherwise raised any hackles.

John


  #3  
Old August 15th 09, 07:58 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
Taria[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 447
Default Local quilt show: observations

We have a local quilter that does a large meandering/mattress allover type
pattern. It is
really just plain old function. The work is a bargain in comparison to
really beautiful
artful machine quilting. Many of the guild members have their work done by
this fellow
and so lots of the work at their small show is his. For a dorm room, folks
with kids or
pets on the bed it works but it isn't the most creative choice. Some of my
quilts have an allover
pattern. I do lots of scrappy busy stuff that will be functional. There is
that all the way to
the hand quilting I do. I guess there is a place for all of it but I would
like to see special
work in shows. I am not sure that happens in small guild shows. Every time I
go to the
road to CA show I come away knowing just how inferior my MQ'ing is. Sure it
is improving
but on a regular machine there are limitations that just aren't around for
long arm quilters.
DH and I were talking about this last week. He has played guitar
professionally but he could
never in this life practice enough to be concert type guitar player.
Everyone has different
natural born capabilities. Of course hard work and determination go a long
way even so.
I know as folks have physical limitations there are reasons to have your
work done by others.
For myself, at this point, I could not call a quilt someone else quilted
mine because I can do it
myself. I do think there is room for it all though.
Hopefully we all have tough toes around here. : )
Taria


  #4  
Old August 15th 09, 08:20 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
Julia in MN[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 760
Default Local quilt show: observations

I agree. Also many machine quilters haven't acquired the skills
necessary to do the custom work that will enhance the pattern of the
top. It takes a lot of practice, a bit more thinking, and perhaps a bit
more imagination. I do all my own quilting, both hand and machine, in
part because I'm too cheap to pay someone to do a really great job of
longarm quilting. I use my regular machine (Elna 6003 Quilter's Dream).
I'm not great at it, but I do try to do something other than allover
stippling or meandering. I have meandered the center of a few small,
quick quilts, but always did something a little different in the
borders; I think those were Yellow Brick Road or similar patterns and
simple meandering seemed appropriate.

The heaviest quilting I've ever done was on the Julia's Lily quilt near
the bottom of http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/Quilts2008.html. I
was also happy with the way the red & pink Warm Wishes turned out. The
other Warm Wishes quilt on that page was much simpler, all straight
line, quilting.

Julia in MN


Louise in Iowa wrote:
John - no offense taken here! I went to a quilt show last year where I saw
much of the same as far as machine quilting. On the other hand, at another
show, I saw more examples of machine quilting being done in a manner than
enhanced and complemented the piecing, so that kind of work really is being
done.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that it's not always the machine
quilter who chooses the quilting design (this applies to those quilts done
by a "professional"). Sometimes, for instance, the piecer tells the machine
quilter that she wants to spend no more than a certain amount of money. The
quilter then has to determine what kind of design she can use and still make
money. Many times that is an edge-to-edge design or a form of meander. The
piecer would get a more custom-designed quilting job if she wanted (or was
able) to spend more money, but budgets don't always allow for that. Other
times, the piecer specifically requests the kind of design you're
describing - they want something that will hold all three layers together
and nothing more. And, quite honestly, it appears there are piecers who just
don't know/understand that their quilt could be even more beautiful if an
appropriate quilting design were created for it.

In an ideal world, every piecer would have an unlimited budget for the
quilting portion of the project and the machine quilter would find the
perfect quilting design that would show off the piecing and make every
piecer the star of the quilt show!

I'm looking forward to our local show this fall - will be interested to see
if the trend is toward overall designs.



--
-----------
This message has been scanned for viruses by Norton Anti-Virus
http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/default
-----------

  #5  
Old August 15th 09, 08:58 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
John
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 711
Default Local quilt show: observations

On Aug 15, 1:25*pm, John wrote:
Let me start off with a disclaimer. If any of you are offended by my
observations, then I am sorry. If you derive pleasure from the things
I am commenting on, then go ahead and continue to enjoy them. My
opinions are my own, and "might" coincide with others, or maybe not.
That stated, herein follows a brief recounting of todays visit to the
local yearly quilt show.
*Lois and I showed up at the local show and started viewing the
offerings from large bed sized quilts to small wall hangings and items
of apparel. The one thing that struck me, and Lois, was the fact that
the degree of overall quilting by machine was of a singular nature.
This observation applied to about 75% of the quilts. The other 25%
were hand quilted, and this observation does not apply to them. They
were very nicely done.
As to the 75%; I have never seen as large a group of quilts, in my
life, that were done in such a random manner that defied the sewn
seams of the pattern, of the quilt. It is as if the person doing the
quilting, and some of them were "professionally" machine quilted, and
they used that word "professionally", loosely, in my opinion, *was
insensitive to the fact that they were crossing over the seams of the
pattern of the quilt on autopilot in an effort to confuse attempted
artistic random loops and squiggles, in the guise of art, and not
respecting the pattern seams as defining elements of the quilt. Now if
this is the new norm and I am completely out of step with State of the
Art Free motion quilting, then so be it, I am out of step. If you look
at the other 25% of the quilts that were hand stitched. they used
overall quilting in the appropriate seam bordered elements of the
pattern and stayed within the confines of the seams and produced a
quilt that respected the pattern design and complimented that with
area quilting which enhanced the overall appearance. Out of probably
35 Machine quilts, I think there were probably 2 or 3 that met the the
above criteria of respecting the seams, and not going over them
randomey, in an attempt to achieve, I don't know what. It is almost as
if people take a class on free motion quilting and then throw away all
the time honored traditions of using quilting and stippling within
area elements that respect the seam lines of the sewn pattern, and
throw themselves into the process of random placement of the needle on
autopilot. Thank you very much,but I think I will get on the other
bus, on this show.
So there you have it. My personal take on the recent, and not so happy
viewing of the state of the art of Machine quilting, as it pertains to
Knox County, Ohio. And once again, I hope that I have not stepped on
any toes here. Or otherwise raised any hackles.

John


I can understand the limitations of money into the overall equation.
But, I do all of the quilting on all of my quilts myself; with a
machine, and proudly so.
1. If I didn't do it, all myself, I wouldn't call it, "My Quilt".
2. If I paid to have it quilted, I wouldn't enter it into a show.
3. I don't like the look of all over quilting on small pieced tops.
4. Number three does not apply to art quilts which are different than
small pieced quilts, and have a different type of piecing pattern than
traditional small pieced pattern quilts, and therefor might be a
candidate for overall machine quilting. I don't make Art Quilts, so I
have no personal experience with that element of the medium. I neither
like or dislike them. They are a different kettle of fish, for me.
Neither better nor worse. Just different. If I ever did do an Art
Quilt, I would certainly consider an all over quilting pattern, if I
thought it would not detract from the design.
Maybe I am a traditionalist in this regard, but one of the quilts
that I really appreciated was machine pieced, and hand quilted. The
hand quilting was stitched in the ditch. Now there was somebody that
took hand stitching to another level. She buried the stitches in the
fold of the seam and they were not even seen in some instances. That
takes commitment when it could have been done by machine with no foul.
Except it wouldn't have been hand quilted. Kudo's to her. I wish I
could do the hand stitching, but these old stubby hammer pounded
fingers just won't cooperate. My own personal cross to bear, I guess.

John
  #6  
Old August 15th 09, 09:23 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
Mary
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 728
Default Local quilt show: observations

I tend to do everything by hand and generally dislike machine
quilting. Perhaps it's a sort of "style", but I really think there
are far too many people who will take a very nice quilt top and
literally ruin it with that sort of machine quilting you describe, and
that is rather sad. Some machine quilting is beautifully done, but
that seems to be the exception these days.

Stupid question, though -- if Person A makes a quilt top and then has
it machine quilted by Person B, how can Person A put that quilt into a
show or a competition? Does the quilt go in as by Person A and Person
B? And is there a difference if the machine quilting is done by a
professional or some sort of commercial enterprise?
  #7  
Old August 15th 09, 09:26 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
turtle
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 29
Default Local quilt show: observations

John wrote:
Let me start off with a disclaimer. If any of you are offended by my
observations, then I am sorry. If you derive pleasure from the things
I am commenting on, then go ahead and continue to enjoy them. My
opinions are my own, and "might" coincide with others, or maybe not.
That stated, herein follows a brief recounting of todays visit to the
local yearly quilt show.
Lois and I showed up at the local show and started viewing the
offerings from large bed sized quilts to small wall hangings and items
of apparel. The one thing that struck me, and Lois, was the fact that
the degree of overall quilting by machine was of a singular nature.
This observation applied to about 75% of the quilts. The other 25%
were hand quilted, and this observation does not apply to them. They
were very nicely done.
As to the 75%; I have never seen as large a group of quilts, in my
life, that were done in such a random manner that defied the sewn
seams of the pattern, of the quilt. It is as if the person doing the
quilting, and some of them were "professionally" machine quilted, and
they used that word "professionally", loosely, in my opinion, was
insensitive to the fact that they were crossing over the seams of the
pattern of the quilt on autopilot in an effort to confuse attempted
artistic random loops and squiggles, in the guise of art, and not
respecting the pattern seams as defining elements of the quilt. Now if
this is the new norm and I am completely out of step with State of the
Art Free motion quilting, then so be it, I am out of step. If you look
at the other 25% of the quilts that were hand stitched. they used
overall quilting in the appropriate seam bordered elements of the
pattern and stayed within the confines of the seams and produced a
quilt that respected the pattern design and complimented that with
area quilting which enhanced the overall appearance. Out of probably
35 Machine quilts, I think there were probably 2 or 3 that met the the
above criteria of respecting the seams, and not going over them
randomey, in an attempt to achieve, I don't know what. It is almost as
if people take a class on free motion quilting and then throw away all
the time honored traditions of using quilting and stippling within
area elements that respect the seam lines of the sewn pattern, and
throw themselves into the process of random placement of the needle on
autopilot. Thank you very much,but I think I will get on the other
bus, on this show.
So there you have it. My personal take on the recent, and not so happy
viewing of the state of the art of Machine quilting, as it pertains to
Knox County, Ohio. And once again, I hope that I have not stepped on
any toes here. Or otherwise raised any hackles.

John


I agree with you. The quilt makers are missing out on an important
aspect of the work when they settle for this kind of quilting.
Stitch in the ditch, echo, or outline takes much more time to do so,
for "professionals", would be much more expensive. However, if you
consider a quilt a work of art or a singular expression of artistic
craft, then I would rather do a less than perfect job myself, and try
to enhance the top's design. Almost anyone (barring physical
restrictions) can get a walking foot and outline the major design
elements, which would be better than what you describe.
However, at a local show, people should be able to enter anything that
they are proud of and want to show off, even if it isn't up to big
show standards. We shouldn't make anyone feel as if their work isn't
good enough to put in - that we are going to be laughing at them, or
clicking our tongues in distaste. (I know you would never do that,
John. No one in this group would, I'm sure. ;)) Not everyone is
into the esthetics of the craft. Some people like to piece but don't
like to quilt, and want to save money for more fabric. Some may like
the all over designs and don't care about winning prizes.
Hopefully, the guilds involved have someone who can give talks about
the design enhancing quality of the quilting. (I've seen a group of
experienced hand quilters take a horrendous pieced top and turn it
into a nice quilt with judicious quilting.) Those who care will
listen, look, and learn. Those who don't will continue to produce
attractive but less-than-they-could-be pieces. This is the way it has
always been in the crafts and arts, and (sigh) we need both kinds to
keep the arts going.

Turtle
It's not the things you have that make you happy, it's the things you
do.

  #8  
Old August 15th 09, 10:36 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
heidi (was rabbit2b)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 355
Default Local quilt show: observations

Hi, John! I'm neither offended nor hackle-raised nor anything of the
sort. And it might be nonsense to comment on something you've seen and
I haven't. That said...

It sounds like the quilting you're describing is what I think of as
"edge to edge" rather than "custom." I think lots of quilts are
finished that way by professional quilters when the quilt is not
destined for stardom and customers don't want to pay for custom work.
Lots of us finish quilts that way because of time constraints or lack
of experience. Me, for one. My _quilting_ will not win awards anytime
in the near future. But a few of my quilts might stand up decently
against the competition in local or regional shows with regard to
pattern/design, use of color, etc. When I use edge-to-edge quilting
other than meandering, want the quilting design to "make sense" with
the patchwork design (No roses on a brown geometric, for instanceg),
but it's the patchwork and color that I'm concerned about. Maybe it's
because I rarely use patterns...
Or maybe I'm missing something in what you wrote.

--Heidi

http://community.webshots.com/user/rabbit2b


(On Aug 15, 1:25*pm, John wrote:
Let me start off with a disclaimer. If any of you are offended by my
observations, then I am sorry. If you derive pleasure from the things
I am commenting on, then go ahead and continue to enjoy them. My
opinions are my own, and "might" coincide with others, or maybe not.
That stated, herein follows a brief recounting of todays visit to the
local yearly quilt show.
*Lois and I showed up at the local show and started viewing the
offerings from large bed sized quilts to small wall hangings and items
of apparel. The one thing that struck me, and Lois, was the fact that
the degree of overall quilting by machine was of a singular nature.
This observation applied to about 75% of the quilts. The other 25%
were hand quilted, and this observation does not apply to them. They
were very nicely done.
As to the 75%; I have never seen as large a group of quilts, in my
life, that were done in such a random manner that defied the sewn
seams of the pattern, of the quilt. It is as if the person doing the
quilting, and some of them were "professionally" machine quilted, and
they used that word "professionally", loosely, in my opinion, *was
insensitive to the fact that they were crossing over the seams of the
pattern of the quilt on autopilot in an effort to confuse attempted
artistic random loops and squiggles, in the guise of art, and not
respecting the pattern seams as defining elements of the quilt. Now if
this is the new norm and I am completely out of step with State of the
Art Free motion quilting, then so be it, I am out of step. If you look
at the other 25% of the quilts that were hand stitched. they used
overall quilting in the appropriate seam bordered elements of the
pattern and stayed within the confines of the seams and produced a
quilt that respected the pattern design and complimented that with
area quilting which enhanced the overall appearance. Out of probably
35 Machine quilts, I think there were probably 2 or 3 that met the the
above criteria of respecting the seams, and not going over them
randomey, in an attempt to achieve, I don't know what. It is almost as
if people take a class on free motion quilting and then throw away all
the time honored traditions of using quilting and stippling within
area elements that respect the seam lines of the sewn pattern, and
throw themselves into the process of random placement of the needle on
autopilot. Thank you very much,but I think I will get on the other
bus, on this show.
So there you have it. My personal take on the recent, and not so happy
viewing of the state of the art of Machine quilting, as it pertains to
Knox County, Ohio. And once again, I hope that I have not stepped on
any toes here. Or otherwise raised any hackles.

John


  #9  
Old August 15th 09, 10:48 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
heidi (was rabbit2b)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 355
Default Local quilt show: observations

Mary, in the few shows I've been to in the last couple of years, there
were many tags that credited the quilter as well as the piecer. But
just for argument's sake, what if the quilter is the one who wants to
show the quilt? Shouldn't s/he also credit the one who put it
together?

I haven't seen any difference in credit for a professional or
commercial quilter. Even if one is doing it for a living, it's still
one's art.

--Heidi

http://community.webshots.com/user/rabbit2b


On Aug 15, 4:23*pm, Mary wrote:

Stupid question, though -- if Person A makes a quilt top and then has
it machine quilted by Person B, how can Person A put that quilt into a
show or a competition? *Does the quilt go in as by Person A and Person
B? *And is there a difference if the machine quilting is done by a
professional or some sort of commercial enterprise?


  #10  
Old August 15th 09, 11:20 PM posted to rec.crafts.textiles.quilting
John
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 711
Default Local quilt show: observations

On Aug 15, 5:36*pm, "heidi (was rabbit2b)" wrote:
Hi, John! I'm neither offended nor hackle-raised nor anything of the
sort. And it might be nonsense to comment on something you've seen and
I haven't. That said...

It sounds like the quilting you're describing is what I think of as
"edge to edge" rather than "custom." I think lots of quilts are
finished that way by professional quilters when the quilt is not
destined for stardom and customers don't want to pay for custom work.
Lots of us finish quilts that way because of time constraints or lack
of experience. Me, for one. My _quilting_ will not win awards anytime
in the near future. But a few of my quilts might stand up decently
against the competition in local or regional shows with regard to
pattern/design, use of color, etc. When I use edge-to-edge quilting
other than meandering, want the quilting design to "make sense" with
the patchwork design (No roses on a brown geometric, for instanceg),
but it's the patchwork and color that I'm concerned about. Maybe it's
because I rarely use patterns...
Or maybe I'm missing something in what you wrote.

--Heidi

http://community.webshots.com/user/rabbit2b

(On Aug 15, 1:25*pm, John wrote:

Let me start off with a disclaimer. If any of you are offended by my
observations, then I am sorry. If you derive pleasure from the things
I am commenting on, then go ahead and continue to enjoy them. My
opinions are my own, and "might" coincide with others, or maybe not.
That stated, herein follows a brief recounting of todays visit to the
local yearly quilt show.
*Lois and I showed up at the local show and started viewing the
offerings from large bed sized quilts to small wall hangings and items
of apparel. The one thing that struck me, and Lois, was the fact that
the degree of overall quilting by machine was of a singular nature.
This observation applied to about 75% of the quilts. The other 25%
were hand quilted, and this observation does not apply to them. They
were very nicely done.
As to the 75%; I have never seen as large a group of quilts, in my
life, that were done in such a random manner that defied the sewn
seams of the pattern, of the quilt. It is as if the person doing the
quilting, and some of them were "professionally" machine quilted, and
they used that word "professionally", loosely, in my opinion, *was
insensitive to the fact that they were crossing over the seams of the
pattern of the quilt on autopilot in an effort to confuse attempted
artistic random loops and squiggles, in the guise of art, and not
respecting the pattern seams as defining elements of the quilt. Now if
this is the new norm and I am completely out of step with State of the
Art Free motion quilting, then so be it, I am out of step. If you look
at the other 25% of the quilts that were hand stitched. they used
overall quilting in the appropriate seam bordered elements of the
pattern and stayed within the confines of the seams and produced a
quilt that respected the pattern design and complimented that with
area quilting which enhanced the overall appearance. Out of probably
35 Machine quilts, I think there were probably 2 or 3 that met the the
above criteria of respecting the seams, and not going over them
randomey, in an attempt to achieve, I don't know what. It is almost as
if people take a class on free motion quilting and then throw away all
the time honored traditions of using quilting and stippling within
area elements that respect the seam lines of the sewn pattern, and
throw themselves into the process of random placement of the needle on
autopilot. Thank you very much,but I think I will get on the other
bus, on this show.
So there you have it. My personal take on the recent, and not so happy
viewing of the state of the art of Machine quilting, as it pertains to
Knox County, Ohio. And once again, I hope that I have not stepped on
any toes here. Or otherwise raised any hackles.


John


What I was commenting on was the line of stitching in the quilting
passing over the joining of the piecing of the pattern on the quilt
top without any regard to the direction or any element of the design
of the pattern. Much like if you placed a large template of random
stitching over a traditional patterned quilt top and then followed the
template to sew together the three pieces of the top, batting, and
backing. The stitching was not done with any regard to the pattern of
the joined pieces, of the top. As if two different people had a hand
in the completion of the quilt, but neither one of them had any idea
what the other one was doing, as far as esthetics are concerned. It
just seemed so mindless as to design. I don't care about not having
enough money to hire a professional quilter who would look at the
design and decide where to put the stitching so as to not degrade the
whole piece of work with careless placement of stitching across the
design lines of the pieced top. If the professional quilter was the
sort of person who would do that, that person is hardly a
professional. People have asked me to make furniture pieces that used
shortcuts, so as to produce a cheaper cost of the item. I declined to
do that sort of thing, and suggested they look elsewhere. It would be
better for me not to do the quilt at all, if that was the choice I was
given. I would rather do one or two quilts a year that I could afford
to have done the "right" way, than a whole closet full of this
malarkey, that I saw. Sorry for the strong statements, and I know
others might not have the same opinions as myself, but there you have
it. I am just saying what I would do, not what anybody else must or
should do. The exceptions, as stated by others was for utility quilts,
or pet bed quilts, or some other such use, but, hardly, for entry into
a quilt show.

John
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Our local show Sandy Quilting 25 February 11th 08 08:47 PM
Local quilt show - Rochester, MN Julia in MN Quilting 1 September 29th 07 08:42 PM
Happy dance - kites quilt in local show No Name Quilting 3 May 16th 07 03:51 AM
Local Quilt Show teleflora Quilting 6 September 5th 04 05:38 AM
Our local quilt show (long) Sandy Foster Quilting 10 April 20th 04 02:00 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:19 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 CraftBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.