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Hand Quilting vs. Machine Quilting

Eilonwy

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Do any of you quilt or know about quilting?

Is it worth the extra $200-$300 to get hand quilting? Is it only sentimental value or is there a practical benefit, such as better quality?
 

ceecee

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I think machine quilting is harder to do but that's just me. My mom can do it. I haven't gotten to an actual quilt stage myself but I do some things. This was the last thing I did, I made it for my mother in law this Christmas.

finishedblanket.jpg


http://yellowsuitcasestudio.blogspot.com/2011/10/wool-sweater-blanket-tutorial.html

My machine doesn't do a blanket stitch but I liked doing it by hand. It wasn't hard and I felt it was a bit more personal since I only used the machine to sew the squares together. I think the choice is up to you but you can make some beautiful machine quilts. Hand quilting takes such a long time, that's a drawback for me.
 

Tallulah

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Do any of you quilt or know about quilting?

Is it worth the extra $200-$300 to get hand quilting? Is it only sentimental value or is there a practical benefit, such as better quality?

I take it you have a quilt top already pieced, and now you're sending it to someone else for the quilting? The quality/durability isn't better; some like the look of a handquilted quilt, but longarm quilting machines can do some lovely patterns, and the quilter running it can also do freestyle patterns. For the handquilting, you're paying someone because it takes them a LOT of time and effort to handquilt an entire quilt for you. You couldn't pay me to do it. Too tedious and time-consuming to sit there with a needle and thread, going over the whole quilt.

Some feel like handquilting is more personal--but to me, if someone in my family isn't the one doing the work for me personally out of love, the personal factor isn't important at all.
 

Fidelia

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Hand quilting will not make your quilt any more durable. However, it does provide a particular look and in some cases, it may provide sentimental value, if it the handiwork of someone who is well-loved. If the sentimental value doesn't matter, but you like the look of hand quilting, sometimes you can pay a church ladies' group or senior's group to do the quilting for you once you have pieced the quilt and chosen a quilt bat that you like. The downside is that you have less control over the end result. The upside is that the amount you pay could not begin to touch the number of personal hours you would have to spend, and in many cases the ladies doing it have a lot of experience that would save them time.

Machine quilting is also very pretty, but gives a different kind of a look. There are usually patterns that run all over the quilt in stitching. It is very popular these days and you can see many examples of that kind of quilting in fabric stores. Again, you can do this yourself, or hire it out.

Personally, I think that the personal touch comes from the way you design the quilt and the materials you use in it. I think it is definitely worth hiring out the actual quilting, unless it is just something that you want to do as a hobby for enjoyment. My mum has made quilts for all of the grandchildren as they've been born, as well as making full sized quilts when they graduate. This is a huge job, and in later years she decided to hire out the quilting for the last two quilts. She concluded that the money she spent was well worth it!
 

Eilonwy

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[MENTION=4050]ceecee[/MENTION], that is beautiful!

Thank you, everyone. Your info has been very helpful.

Here's the story: When my mom was living in Phoenix before the stroke, she knew a lady, through my middle sis, who did quilting. The lady was teaching my mom how to quilt when mom had the stroke. My middle sis gave all of mom's craft stuff to the lady and she found the unfinished squares of the quilt she had been teaching mom to make. With the thought of giving the completed quilt to my mom, she gave the squares to middle sis, who completed them, then she put the squares together and has the batting and the backing (forgive me if I'm using the wrong terminology), but she's too old now to do the quilting by hand herself. She recommended having it hand quilted by someone she knows rather than doing it by machine, but middle sis can't afford it ($300-$400) and has asked me and big sis to contribute. Big sis doesn't want to spend that much money on something that my mom won't be able to appreciate. Middle sis really wants to have it hand quilted. I can see big sis's point, but can also appreciate the sentimentality of having it hand quilted. I'm kind of the deciding factor and wanted to make a more informed decision.
 
A

Anew Leaf

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Well, this makes a lot of sense.

I hire mine out to be machine quilted because I want them done faster than hand quilting would allow.

Hand quilting would definitely be something I would turn to if the item was going to be extra special and treasured.

Is this something that has to be done now? Perhaps the choice could be to have it hand quilted down the road when funds are more readily available. What is the plan for the quilt after it's done? Is middle sis going to keep it?
 

Eilonwy

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Well, this makes a lot of sense.

I hire mine out to be machine quilted because I want them done faster than hand quilting would allow.

Hand quilting would definitely be something I would turn to if the item was going to be extra special and treasured.

Is this something that has to be done now? Perhaps the choice could be to have it hand quilted down the road when funds are more readily available. What is the plan for the quilt after it's done? Is middle sis going to keep it?

Middle sis wants to give it to mom, so sooner would be better as we don't know how long mom will live to enjoy it. Once mom dies, middle sis would like to have it back, which makes sense since she did the work. I'm not sure who would be doing the hand quilting, but the lady in Phoenix may belong to a quilting group since she's been quilting forever. It is someone she knows.

My mom may or may not recognize the pattern. Either way, I doubt that it would mean to her now what it would have before the stroke. So the meaning would only be important to us kids, and mostly to middle sis.

By the way, it's a queen-sized quilt.
 

Eilonwy

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Here's a photo of a similar quilt that my middle sis sent to me to show the quilting pattern that they will use:

attachment.php
 
A

Anew Leaf

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Beautiful!!

I can see the problem there. Honestly, I don't think you should personally have to pay a dime for this since A: you are your mom's caregiver, and B: it will eventually go to your middle sister. If she wants it quilted, then she should fork out the money to get it done the way she wants it done.

Right now it sounds like she wants her cake and eat it too a bit too much. If it's too expensive for her, then she should just go with the machine quilting and be done with the situation. Right now it comes off (to me) as a titch of emotional manipulation. You have enough on your plate.

That's my twelve cents. ;)
 

ceecee

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Beautiful!!

I can see the problem there. Honestly, I don't think you should personally have to pay a dime for this since A: you are your mom's caregiver, and B: it will eventually go to your middle sister. If she wants it quilted, then she should fork out the money to get it done the way she wants it done.

Right now it sounds like she wants her cake and eat it too a bit too much. If it's too expensive for her, then she should just go with the machine quilting and be done with the situation. Right now it comes off (to me) as a titch of emotional manipulation. You have enough on your plate.

That's my twelve cents. ;)

I'm getting the same feeling on it, the sister should pay. The quilt is beautiful though. I found this today and it made me think of this thread. This is definitely a trend with machine quilting, maybe I can talk my mom into helping me with this.

0-6.jpg
 

Tallulah

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Beautiful!!

I can see the problem there. Honestly, I don't think you should personally have to pay a dime for this since A: you are your mom's caregiver, and B: it will eventually go to your middle sister. If she wants it quilted, then she should fork out the money to get it done the way she wants it done.

Right now it sounds like she wants her cake and eat it too a bit too much. If it's too expensive for her, then she should just go with the machine quilting and be done with the situation. Right now it comes off (to me) as a titch of emotional manipulation. You have enough on your plate.

That's my twelve cents. ;)

Totally agree with all of this.
 

Eilonwy

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Thanks, everyone! I'll be telling middle sis to have it quilted by machine.
 
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