Some one said, "But, is that even a quilt? Where's all the fancy stitching?"
While 'quilting' is very technically the 'top-stitching' on a quilt or garment, that top-stitching on a one layered piece is not quilting. Unless there are layers, it's not quilting. And, there have always, probably, been levels of quilting. What most people are familiar with today, and "all the fancy stitching" is really what I think of as "rich girl hobby-est" quilting. Sort of like the embroidery we've all seen in period dramas that the wealthier girls do with their time. They aren't usually making the big items of clothing, the more difficult things, just the prettier work. "All that fancy stitching, once done by hand, has long been done by machine and those machines take up a good deal of space, cost a lot of money ($5,000 - $30,000 I'm told, with all the extra's you'll need.) That's not a cost a 'hobby-est' in my income level can afford. I paid over $1,500 for my sewing machine more than a decade ago, and I thought that was pushing the envelope for me!
So, here's how they tried to convince me it would pay for itself. If I bought the big machine, I could do long arm quilting for others. Those that do long arm quilting charge by the inch of fabric, the more expensive ones work via computer loaded graphics so you just have to be there to monitor it (and know what to do if it's not working, having issues, ruining someone else's property), not only do they charge by the inch (my quilts are 72"x90", but many are much bigger,) they also charge for incidentals like $50 each quilt for thread snipping, $50 for... So, I ask, if I am doing this work, when would I have time to quilt? (I was working full-time at the time, you know 60 hours a week gone to earn money to eat. Plus general life things.) So, as you can see, this kind of quilting is actually for people with far more money than I have available, just for the quilting part of quilting, which I think of as the least important part of making quilts. This type of 'quilting' is for the rich hobbyest who have lots of time to work on their quilts, or can afford to pay someone else to long arm their quilts, and afford to say 'oh, well,' if it gets ruined, and of course, those selling all the big money machines want this to be what quilting is all about.
And then there's me, and people like me, who are here for the folk-art expression available in this textile art. We do some form of 'stitch in the ditch' quilting, not the fancy thread art, that takes away (in my view) from the art of the quilt. Whether it's a traditional quilt pattern (I've done lots and lots) or it's something stepping away from tradition toward art (I've been doing these more recently) they are all wonderful gifts and just as much 'quilts' as those the thread-art folks (and their computers) make!
