I have been quilting now for a long time. Over 30 years now, and I am finally learning some things about myself in the process. Once the top is pieced, the process of quilting the top, backing and batting together is central to the craft, but that’s where things get interesting for me.

I have a number of friends who actually describe themselves as ‘piecers’ not ‘quilters’ because they spend all their time making tops but they don’t do the quilting part of the process. There are a variety of reasons for this – if you’ve ever tried to shove the fabric and batting of a king size quilt around under the needle of your domestic sewing machine, you know that wrestling pigs in the summertime might be considered easier. Then there’s the question of what pattern to quilt on each quilt. After all the decisions about color and piecing are done, you have to decide how to quilt the project. This is where I am going to make a huge admission about myself: I don’t like custom quilting.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the quilts I see at shows are just breathtaking. (For those not familiar with the process, custom quilting is the process of sewing very specific patterns in very specific locations on the quilt as opposed to just sewing a larger, general pattern all over the surface of the quilt.). In quilt shows, there are awards for the quilting alone and custom quilting can turn a quilt into a work of art, but it is not a process that I enjoy. I need to say that again.

The quilts I make tend to be very heavily pieced. There are not large open areas where custom quilting could really shine. There’s a lot I could do within the piecing I do, but you would have to get very close to the quilt to see that level of detail. The quilts I make also tend to get used around the house. Spending the amount of time it would take to custom quilt a king size quilt (think 30 hours or more instead of 6) just doesn’t seem worth it for something that is going to get crumpled up on the bed regularly.

I have spent a lot of years beating myself up for not being a custom quilter, for not taking the time to make every quilt I produce have a custom designed quilting pattern on it, but no more. I love to piece. I quilt to finish, and I’m tired of having a bunch of tops in boxes because I feel guilty about not custom quilting them. Hello my name is Martha, and I don’t like custom quilting.

I finished my Small World quilt. I did not custom quilt it. It is bound and hanging up in my sewing room and I couldn’t be happier with it. I did not custom quilt it and I think it still looks wonderful, much better than it would look just hanging as a top I pinned to the wall. I am going to keep looking at that as a reminder that it’s ok to finish things the way I want to, so that I actually finish things. It’s ok to not custom quilt.