I love quilting. When I made my first quilt, I hand quilted it. I was self taught and really had no idea what I was doing but I was hooked after I finished the quilt. I then made my second quilt. All the blocks were hand pieced and I sewed the blocks together on the machine. I then hand quilted it. My 3rd quilt, I took a class and discovered rotary cutters and mats! WOW!!! what a difference those little things made. Anyway, I hand quilted that quilt also. I entered it into the local county fair and won a blue ribbon it. I was shocked!! It took me a year to get it finished. A friend of mine took the class with me and had hers done within a few months because she sent hers out to be quilted. I was devastated when I saw her quilt come back with a panto pattern on it. I swore at that time that I would never have a quilt machine quilted. I went on to make several more quilt tops and hand quilted a couple more but by this time I thought I had to make every neat quilt I saw so I was getting the tops made faster than I could hand quilt them. Then I saw what they were doing with machine quilting! WOW They were quilting tops and focusing on the quilt pattern, not doing pantos!! I had to have one of these machines and shortly after my discovery I bought my first longarm. I began quilting focusing on the pattern of the quilt, giving them detail. I still do that today. All these years later. Sometimes I wonder if I should do them faster and simpler but then I remember why I quilt and I put the extra hours in them because I want the quilt to be the best that it can. I am proud when I see quilts hanging at the county fair with blue ribbons on them and I’ve quilted them. Or at a local quilt show where a quilt that I’ve quilted has a ribbon. I love quilting and I take pride in what I do. I guess I don’t quilt mainly for the money although I do have to quilt to pay bills but I quilt because of the love I have for it. To see the look of pleasure on the customers face, to hear the words “I was going to give that away, but now I think I’ll keep it!” or just getting a hug because I’ve taken what they called an ugly quilt and made it into a beautiful swan! Yes, I LOVE what I do. Why do you quilt?
Theresa
Always Quilts 
Hmmm…I really can’t explain why…except it’s soothing to my soul in some way. It is so therapeutic to me…just one of the things in life that makes me feel really good.
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Oh I have always loved quilts!! I have always been fascinated with every part of the process. And then after the child came and my time became more limited I had to choose between just not finishing, sending out or finding a way to do it myself. So we started looking at longarms and even my husband came to the same conclusion as you. Not everyone cares if the quilting compliments the quilt. Many do, some don’t. And then he surprised me with a longarm because of everything I have done for the family. Nice bonus pay isn’t it!! So now I get to do what I love, how I love it on my quilts and other people’s quilts because like you, I want it to look ma-va-lous when I’m done 😀
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