When is a quilt not an "official" quilt?

Hi Everyone...

I am busy sewing up a storm as a noob, and so far, doing fairly well. I made sure to purchase quality notions and fabrics (Woot Jenny!).

The one thing I am concerned about is... if I make beautiful quilt tops, do I have to have them quilted? One small quilt I have all pinned and am ready to take a stab at stippling. But other ones, will be very big, and well, I can't afford to send them off and have them quilted. I want to fill the bare walls of my apartment with them.

Is it acceptable to complete them with border and binding and not be "officially quilted" with batting? I already have just a simple charm pack quilt hanging up and it looks beautiful on the wall.

Have you done this before? Thoughts??

Thanks in advance for your replies,
Spyder

(hurls Hershey Kisses in to the forum):D

Hi hon! This is YOUR quilt, and if you want to do them with only front and back and flip then as Wall Art - Do it!! I have 2 that are more wall art types. I love to quilt but only lines do not know how to FMQ and really? No desire. I love making the tops, and can see how pretty putting those on your walls would be - Go for it and enjoy what makes YOU happy in here *grabs 1 kiss*

:-Debbie

Hello spyderquilt,

Prime Directive: Love what you do and do what you love! If you are happy with your quilt tops hung on your walls, then that is fabulous. Go for it.

Having said that, a creation is not a quilt until three layers have been sandwiched and sewn together. That means a quilt top, a back, and some kind of filling, even if that's only a thin sheet or flannel.

Now, having said *that*, you certainly don't have to send your quilts out to be quilted. I have never done so, not once. My early quilts were quilted using the "Stitch in the Ditch" method (STID). STID means that you quilt your three layers together by following the seam lines in your quilt top. You don't even have to follow all of them, just enough to meet the minimum quilting distance that you'll see on batting packages.

But you don't need to have quilts on your wall, you can have fabric art. I do think that a quilt will tend to sag less than a quilt top would. But you may have a great way to get the quilt top to stay on the wall without sagging.

Again -- The Prime Directive: Love what you do and do what you love!

The only thing I wonder is, how will you finish the back? Do you intend for them to have a back? If you don't want to quilt them, you could do the pillow method and tie them. I just did a pillow method and then quilted it some recently. Cause I am not ready to do binding by hand and I don't want to do it on a machine.

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!

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GuitarGramma

.... My early quilts were quilted using the "Stitch in the Ditch" method (STID). STID means that you quilt your three layers together by following the seam lines in your quilt top. You don't even have to follow all of them, just enough to meet the minimum quilting distance that you'll see on batting packages.

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I have finished two quilts and a placemat set since beginning in July and I stitched lines 1/4 inch from the piecing joins on both sides of them. Is this what you mean by SITD or did you actually stitch on the patchwork joins?

As for 'minimum quilting distance' what do you mean as all the batting I've bought has come off huge bulk rolls so there's been no information like that.

Thank you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dalronix

I have finished two quilts and a placemat set since beginning in July and I stitched lines 1/4 inch from the piecing joins on both sides of them. Is this what you mean by SITD or did you actually stitch on the patchwork joins?

As for 'minimum quilting distance' what do you mean as all the batting I've bought has come off huge bulk rolls so there's been no information like that.

Thank you.

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Hi Ron and welcome from Arizona

Actually Stitch in the Ditch is where you stitch in the "ditch" of the seams where they meet up - But you did great on either side.

Also most batting will say minimum stitch is 4" or 8" apart. What kind did you get on a roll? I bet someone in here will know the minimum on that too !

Debbie

I agree... It's your quilt.... or quilt top..... You can do whatever you want to with it.... Wall art would be great!

<catches a few of the Hershey Kisses and says thanks>

If you want to make it an 'official' quilt then I guess you probably need to have a front, back and something to hold them together. I don't know if batting has to be in it to make it a quilt, maybe it's a blanket without batting, but a quilt with batting? hmmm, I don't know.

Anyways, if you want to hang your work, does it matter if it's a quilt or not? I think it's grand that you are displaying your work! My sister is making several pieces to hang on her office walls. We call them hangings, for lack of a proper name.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bhaggerty

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!

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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 :)

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".

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.

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kelliedi

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.

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Hey! Save some for me!! :lol:

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

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!

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)

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?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by buckeyequilter

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 :)

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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.

I'm with the "do what you want" group; display them and enjoy them! The idea of framing an orphan block is a good one (thank you!!), I have just the block!

My maternal grandmother used to make potholders out of orphan blocks. I still have some of them. I think of them as mini quilts.