I love the hand quilting. Sure it takes longer, but so satisfing when finished. The look is entirely different. I've seen lots of beautiful machine quilting but, to me, it still dosn't replace hand quilting. I have done some sid machine quilting but much prefer the end result of hand quilting. I also have a stack of tops to be quilted but will still take the time to hand quilt when possible. I sure don't plan on paying someone else to machine quilt them. There is enough expense involved.