Sending Out a Quilt Top to be Finished or DIY?

[Carlie Wolf]

When I start a hobby that I know will stick I tend to go overboard. I knew that there was no way I could afford having a shop quilt all the pieces I'd probably do. I tried FMQ and hated it. I purchased a midarm when I sold my property in Canada and I haven't looked back since. I also preferred stand up as opposed to a sit down setup. Total cost was $4000 which included other items that would also make life easier. I'm sure I've quilted many more items on it then I could have afforded having them sent out. So I'm happy with my decision.

[Caroline T.]

I am baffled by people who say they want to do it all themselves. Did they plant the cotton, weave the fabric, dye the fabric, mine the metal and design and fabricate the sewing machine? Then you didn't do it all yourself. It is a team effort.

Well I guess it's like preparing a Thanksgiving meal for the entire family by yourself. While everyone is enjoying the meal and complimenting the chef.....no one says "WOW that turkey farmer really knows what he's doing!"

There is a great deal of satisfaction when you have created a quilt from the beginning (choosing the pattern and fabric) thru the end (quilting & binding).

But with that said, not everyone enjoys every step of the process, and for some people some steps can be quite challenging and ruins the joy of the parts they do enjoy doing.

IMO, do what you enjoy doing, and leave the rest for someone else, whether it be quilting, cooking, gardening, or housework - it's all good!

[KarenC]

I do it all myself, after purchasing fabric and pattern. I do not feel comfortable designing my own. Didn’t like sandwiching so I now have a longarm. Definitely not cheaper than quilting by check, but I enjoy the quilting part, so there goes. We have lots of options to choose what works best.

[Granny Judy]

so far I have been able to do all the sewing on my home machine. 9960 Janome has a big throat so I can do my larger quilts. It gets challenging at times, but so rewarding once done. Before I got the Janome, I was struggling to do anything larger than a twin size quilt. Now I can zip thru them in the half the time it took me previously.

[GuitarGramma]

I'll admit it, I'm too cheap to send my quilts to a quilter. This probably explains why I have so many pieced tops waiting to be quilted! So, really, I'm a perfect example of what NOT to NOT do. I should NOT be so cheap that I do NOT send quilt tops to the experts. I should NOT finish quilt tops and NOT quilt them. I should NOT keep my Little Gracie folded up in storage where it can NOT quilt my tops.

I think youve belped me realize that I have a NOT problem.

[SuzanneOrleansOntario]

I have sent some King size to LAQ, not just because of size but lack of time to do it myself. I also have a Sweet 16 and use this for the majority of my quilts. I have also rented a HQ Amara to quilt about 6-7 queen-King size quilts in the past few years.

[MSN]

I enjoy piecing more than quilting, but probably in part because I am more comfortable with it. I am also a perfectionist, and am not happy with my FMQing. I realize that to improve those skills, I will have to practice a LOT. I figure when I retire, I can set a goal of trying to FMQ regularly. I have a nice machine with a large throat, and recently got a smaller machine. I can now leave the larger one set up for FMQing or embroidery, and use the smaller one for piecing. Right now, that means in two different rooms on different floors. Perhaps someday I will have a studio large enough to accommodate everything in one place. Until then, I am happy to support my local LA quilters. Realistically, I will probably continue to use them for large quilts, especially if I have invested a lot of time constructing the top. I want the quilting to be worthy of the effort put into the quilt top.

[Old Newbie]

I quilt all my baby quilts, and enjoy the creation. I send to M * anything over 55 inches. It is a wonderful day when my quilts come back, because they are quilted so beautifully. So I am happy in both ways.

[Monique]

I don't have the $$ to send it out to someone, so I hand quilt all my quilts but will machine quilt small projects like table runners and such.

[AMG]

I love all the parts of making a quilt except sandwiching. I'd love to try doing more creative pieced backing but keeping that thing straight is so hard (I just made a baby quilt with a vertical strip of piecing and it took forver!)

My FMQ skills have gotten better, especially once I was able to let go of perfection lol. On the same baby quilt, I made "swirl flowers" and I was tickled at how well I did (comparatively speaking, lol). If I had the budget, I'd buy a long armmachine but I have a kid in college so my discretionary income has mostly disappeared!