I recently decided to have some of my quilts quilted by a long arm quilter. As a dedicated hand quilter, this was not an easy decision to make, but a huge backlog of quilts awaiting quilting was enough to finally put me over the edge and give it a try. Remember this block of the month quilt?
It's the first one back from the long arm quilters' and the verdict is... I love it!
Here's a look at the finished product:
Actually I've had the quilt for a couple of weeks, but between baseball and lacrosse games, puppy school and a submission deadline, I didn't get around to starting the binding until yesterday.
I'd like to say that I'm finished with the binding, but in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that I'm still working on sewing it down on the back. Sigh...
But back to the quilting. I love how the stippling in the inner border makes the appliqué pop...
I think the pattern on the setting triangles is really pretty...
And I especially like the "piano key" pattern in the outer border...
The drape is a bit stiffer than with a hand-quilted quilt, but my mom assures me that it will soften with use. And it is a very different look than hand-quilting -- although no less pretty. In retrospect, I might have chosen a less visible thread color for the blocks and setting triangles, but short of changing the thread color to match every block (and probably driving up the cost) I'm not sure what would have looked better.
But all in all I'm very happy with the finished quilt -- the operative word being "finished." Let's be honest, it would probably have taken me a year to finish by hand (IF I finished it at all) and I would never have attempted that outer border. Quilted and bound in less than 2 months (well, almost bound) all while working on other projects and without sore fingers. I'm sold!