To quilt or not to quilt...

As you may know, I love quilting. As you may also know, I have an ancient sewing machine. I guess, technically speaking, it's not "antique" ancient, but it's from the 70's. And while it's a perfectly serviceable sewing machine in most respects, there are some things that I find extremely difficult to accomplish with said machine. Like quilting.

Sewing fabric together, in general, is a task my machine can handle. But once you get more than two pieces of fabric in there, you really have to muscle it around to get it to sew properly. And starting at the edge of the fabric usually results in bunching and occasionally some tearing. It's not a pretty sight.

So, like I said, I can sew quilt tops together pretty easily. Some of the more complicated blocks get, well, complicated to sew because of the bunching problem, but all in all, it's a fairly manageable task. Actually quilting the thing is another story altogether... Quilting involves layering the top, the batting and the backing together like a quilt sandwich and basting to hold them roughly in place while you sew through all 3 layers. Quilt bats come in a variety of materials and thicknesses, but I tend to favor fairly thin, organic cotton bats. When I get all three layers together under the needle, I have to grip and pull pretty hard to get the fabric to move through together. Usually, a walking foot is all that is needed to accomplish this task. A walking foot will help keep the bottom fabric moving along with the top fabric. I have a walking foot, but that doesn't seem to solve the problem. I think the main issue is that my machine was designed to darn socks and sew clothes, but not to quilt. The short answer to the problem is that I need a new machine.

Which brings me to my main issue for the day: I have a quilt top that I sewed and love, and gave as a gift to my husband on our second anniversary - well, our second dating anniversary. So I've had this quilt top finished and waiting to be made into a beautiful bed cover for 4 years now, but I was afraid that if I quilted it myself, I'd ruin it. I've quilted on that machine before, but I get little areas where the fabric hasn't move along the way it should and bunches up. I did not want that to happen with this top, so I took it to my local quilt shop to have it professionally quilted with a long arm quilting machine. I've seem this woman's work before and I know the top will come out beautiful, but I'm still feeling a bit of guilt over it. I mean, I picked out the fabric, I sewed the top together, I cut the binding strips and sewed them together, and I picked out the batting and backing fabric. She is going to put it all together, quilt and bind it. So can I still say that I made the quilt? I always feel like I need a bunch of caveats - like "I made the top, but I had it professionally quilted."

On the one hand I feel like it's cheating a bit to have it professionally quilted, but on the other hand I know that a) it's going to be beautiful, b) the actual quilting step is difficult and requires both time and skill, and c) many quilters send most or all of their tops to be professionally quilted. Particularly for quilts entered in contests and such. So maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself for sending my top to be professionally done. I don't have to do every single bit of the project in order for it to be "mine". I'm not growing the cotton, or dying it, after all. And, if nothing else, I'm supporting a small business, right?

Anyone else want to weigh in?