I know machines are easier, faster and may give a neater finish but does anyone prefer hand sewing?

I'm not going to use a machine at all... I don't know enough to know if it's a terrible idea or not :lol:

p.s on flickr.com there's a group called modern fresh quilts with thousands of images, they're amazing! you don't have to be a member to view them

I like English paper piecing and making yo yos. You will love this award winning famous quilter, Jenny Beyer. All of her quilts are hand pieced. She does not use a machine. She wrote a great book about hand sewing techniques. It's worth getting. check out her patterns and quilts at

http://www.jinnybeyer.com/index.cfm

When I first started quilting about 8 years ago, I really enjoyed handquilting the sandwich and applique, but the the piecing was done on machine. I felt that was the best of both worlds. The handquilting can be done anywhere so I took it to my sister's, camping, in front of tv... I loved it and was proud to say I did it by hand. Unfortunately, I never became really proficient at it because after only a couple years, my hands became compromised from rheumatoid arthritis. Since that started, I thank God the sewing machine was invented.
Cathy

I do applique and quilting by hand, but do my piecing usually on the machine. I don't have a good eye for straightness and the machine help to sew a straight line.

Janie

I have almost always machine pieced and hand quilt.... I hand pieced and hand quilted a butterfly quilt for my grandson. I feel like machine quilting, especially the computer-programmed designs is not using quilting talents. To me it means you are a good computer programmer, not a good quilter... My humble apologies to anyone who machine quilts that way.
I also hand quilt because I enjoy it sooooo much. I find it very relaxing.
That's just my opinion and we all know what they say about opinions!
Ellen

I machine what ever I can ...just faster for me and I like the results too....bless those that hand stitch.....:-)....very timely but is lovely it it's own right and hey man there is room for us all.....difference is what makes the world go round.....:-)....

When I hand sew block pieces I draw the sewing line on the back of the fabric. There is a computer program that prints shapes in any size and has the lines printed on the template onto the fabric. All set in seams are marked for you too. You use the fabric of your choice and stabilize it with freezer paper. It's super easy and very accurate. It's called Inklingo.

my quilts have a combination of both machine quilting, bobbin thread work and hand quilting/embroidery.

the background filling quilting is always done by the sewing machine, then the thread painting is typically done thru the bobbin since you can put thicker thread in the bobbin, and i do all my embroidery by hand and any embellishing.

Hi Becky and welcome from East Tennessee, USA.. OK.. I am the old-fashioned totally low tech quilter. I do it all by hand.. no rotary cutter, no machines.. just me, my scissors and my needles. I like it because, to me, it is relaxing and all phases of my projects (unless size is prohibitive) are completely portable.. I am rarely without a packet of quilt pieces, needle and thread and scissors at the very least. My first quilt was a King sized, embellished Grandmothers fan.. although I wound up hating it and sold the top for a nice piece of change...lol. it was just the colors I decided I didn't like.. so who am I to say you need to start with a small project?