Tiffany

I sew at the speed of slow; this is both piecing with a machine and hand quilting. I am always amazed at how quickly everyone else seems to finish things. I think it just depends on the individual person and what they are comfortable working at. I'm like one of the other posters, it can take me 500-1000 hours to finish a queen to king size quilt. It's one of the reasons I'm learning to machine quilt - so I can actually get more quilts finished.

That said, if I'm just quilting straight lines I am rather quick. However, I rarely quilt in just straight lines. I find the more detailed my quilting is, the more I like it, and since quilting in circular motion (like flower petals) takes a lot more time, I can rarely finish a quilt in just a couple months.

mpeters1200

I use a small lap frame with a 14" hoop. Well...the hoop is probably bigger than that, but 14" is my workspace. Start to finish it just depends because I work full time, have 3 children (one disabled), housewife, den parent volunteer for scouts and volunteer some hours for PTA...not counting my quilt club. I now keep a quilt I'm piecing and then a quilt I'm quilting. I recently hand quilted a 54 in square lap quilt. It was a 9 block sampler that I pretty much quilted in the ditch. I got some templates and experimented freehand a little bit. It took me a month...but I only worked on it an hour or so each night, so it was only 30 hours.

I've spent days just thinking about my next one. Transferring pattern instructions to paper, drawing out the blocks, using crayons to test which color would be best. My thinking processes take a lot longer than the time to actually make a quilt. But I hand quilt everything.

Granny B

The last quilt I finished by hand (a king size Cathedral Window) took me three years. I started another, a Sunbonnet Sue, and my hands swelled so bad again that I never did finish it. I look at it every now and then but don't pick it up to work on it. I went into debt for awhile and bought a Statler Long Arm and am happy quilting again. I used to think that machine quilted quilts weren't really quilts. Funny how your thinking morphs with your situation. I love the quilts I quilt by machine now.

Tiffany

That used to be the standard thinking, that somehow quilts that were machine quilted were substandard to those that are hand pieced. I think the amazing work done by so many professionals and winning so many awards at the major shows has just about changed that theory completely.

Granny B

You're tight Tiffany, but there are still quilters out there who believe that it's not really a quilt if it's not hand-quilted. Some people just can't change their minds about some things.

Tiffany

If they had my list of UFOs they might change their minds!!! :lol:

esteemarlu

Hi, I have been a long long time hand quilter and I can finish a full size quilt in two months and that includes the cutting and piecing if I stick with it and don't start anything else. I actually have to make it my job. I don't recommend you putting away a quilt you're not done with or else you will get distracted with beautiful fabric and will probably start on something new. You have to really stay focused until you're done with it. If I do put a UFO away it can take me a couple of years. You know the saying, "Out of sight out of mind."

Tiffany

I'm curious, how many hours a day does this include in your two months?

I have to put things away at times. Usually because something else comes up and I need to set aside what I'm working on to do another project. (Darn those weddings and mother's-to-be! :wink: ) But I also have different projects going that are for different areas I quilt in. I have a quilt I work on when I'm at a friends house or at a quilting bee, an applique or hand quilting project I work on when upstairs watching tv with hubby, a quilt that I'm working on downstairs in my quilt room...you get the idea. Doing a single quilt just would not work for me at all.

Jingle

I use to hand quilt and I still have my white plastic frame - stored away. I started machine quilting several years ago and that is the only way to go. I will keep it up, I want to make lots of quilts and machine quilting is the only way I will be able to do it. Years are starting to go really fast. I hope to retire middle of this year and hope to make lots and lots of quilts then. :lol: :lol: :lol:

MadQuilter

My problem is not the speed of quilting - it is the length of procrastination until I get to the quilting part. I always worry that it doesn't turn out acceptably well and so I push the top out of my mind until the deadline looms or I manage to kick myself in the hiney.