Fabric crafts always face the issue of whether the tools used in their production become a substitute for human creativity. You’ll hear this argument voiced frequently when people talk about embroidery and using special embroidery sewing machines, and you’ll even hear it when people discuss machine quilting. But although the question is a factor in the quilting too, it’s less of one. There is still a lot of human planning and creativity necessary to create quilts, even by machine. And of course, using the right machine is another factor.
Even though most people who are into machine quilting would probably agree that Pfaff provides the top machines to work on, many also know that the cost is rather beyond their means. But there are several other brands that people love and absolutely swear by. Bernina, for example, is a great favorite, and even though there doesn’t appear to be a Bernina machine devoted solely to quilting, the company seems to be fulfilling its promise to make pattern quilting as rich and varied on its machines as the embroidery features.
Some requirements for quilting on a machine are a bit different than those for machine embroidering, even though the principles are similar. For one thing, when you’re making a quilt, the needle must penetrate several layers of material at once, and those layers of cloth need to be fed through the machine at exactly the same rate, so nothing puckers and the stitches are even. There is usually a much greater mass of fabric to be kept out of the way or worked on. A sewing machine that can reliably be used will be able to handle these mundane yet ever present details of quilting fabric crafts.
Some would complain that if machine quilting was genuine, then a company like Pfaff wouldn’t need to boast that some of its machines come with antique stitches to give the quilt a “hand-stitched character.” Yet people also need to remember that for some people, hand stitching can be very difficult if they’ve got arthritis or some other problem with their hands. Doing quilting by machine may not entirely please traditionalists, but these machines do provide ways for some to continue quilting who otherwise would have to stop. And they extend the art of quilting into new realms.
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