When is a quilt not an "official" quilt?

[buckeyequilter]

Hey, this is American Folk art at its finest! You can do anything you want!
I have a cute block that became an orphan and I just stuck it in a picture frame and it is hanging , unquilted, in my sewing room!

Good idea...I have a few orphans. I put them in a drawer to make quilt sandwiches with so I can practice, my seam lines are there for SITD practice or whatever I want to do. Now I'm going to have to frame one of them

[verenaerin]

You can always tie it off. That's what I did with most of my first quilts.


Also, tying off counts to making it an official "quilt".

[Vonnie]

The quilts I made as a teenager were all tied and hemmed (where you bring the backing to the front and sew it down). Did not learn what binding was until after I retired and took quilting classes.

One of my grandmothers made quilts and a lot of them did not have an inner layer - I believe some people call these summer quilts. When you live in a warm climate 3 layers can be too much.

Sew people tie, some tack, some quilt by machine some quilt by hand. It's your quilt so it's your decision.

[Vonnie]

BTW, a lot of times when I use a thick backing such as fleece or minkee I don't use a batting and I still call it a quilt.

[SallyO'Sews]

You are smart at least you are displaying them whereas I have my tops that are done all folded up and I wait until I feel someone needs that particular quilt to be theirs. Then i put it together as a quilt.

p.s. since nobody else is taking the Hershey kisses i will make the sacrifice and take them all....your welcome.

Hey! Save some for me!!

[Vonnie]

What's all this about Hershey's Kisses?! I want some! Quilting, chocolate and diet coke - that's the life!

[HandsomeRyan]

The first rule of quilting: There are no rules.

Quilting, that is, the act of joining the top, batting, and backing with stitches, is used to help hold everything together and keep the batting from shifting and helps prevent the seams of the pieced top (and sometimes back) from having too much movement and fraying more quickly.

If you just want to hang something on the wall, there is no real need to bat or quilt it. Heck, you may not even need to back or bind it if you put it in a frame or something.

On the other hand- if this is something you _want_ quilted but you can't afford to pay someone else to quilt it for you, you can do the quilting yourself. It probably won't be as fancy as the high end professional long arm quilting you might see some of the people here showing off but trust me when I say you can do simple/basic quilting with almost any sewing machine. My wife and I's first quilt was almost queen sized and I quilted it using a $80 Brother sewing machine with a 6" throat. I did simple stitch-in-the-ditch sewing and went slowly, but I made it work.

My wife and I made a quilt-top pieced shower curtain. We didn't use any batting and we only applied a few lines of stitches to hold the "top" (front) to the simple muslin backing. It has held up just fine and we use it every day.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

If you do decide to try your hand at quilting, I can not recommend basting spray strongly enough! I pin-basted my first few quilts because I didn't want to pay $15 for a spray can of washable glue but after I finally broke down and tried it I will never go back! Wish someone had told me how much easier it is from the beginning.

Post some pictures of your quilt(s) when you get a chance. We love all quilts- quilted or not!

[spyderquilt]

Thank you all so much for your replies. They really do make me happy to read when I post something.

I think I'd like to stretch and mount them and hang on the wall. Maybe frame small ones behind glass.

Again, thank you so much for taking your time to reply.

Spyder
(throws Tastykake Peanut Butter KandyKakes into the forum)
Tastykake | Kandy Kakes (just in case you're not familiar with these South Philly yummy things)

[Lisapc]

I am waiting until I see a few fabrics that are "just perfect" then I will decoupage them to painting canvas's and us them as wall art. You could do that as well with your tops, maybe I will even do a couple of blocks like that?

[easyquilts]

Good idea...I have a few orphans. I put them in a drawer to make quilt sandwiches with so I can practice, my seam lines are there for SITD practice or whatever I want to do. Now I'm going to have to frame one of them

I have several 12 inch Civil War blocks that I am in the process of making into mini-quilts to hang in the will.... They were all hand pieced a couple of years should, and will be hand quilted. Most feature Barbara Brackman's beautiful paisleys, and are backed with them, too.