I've done both - as recently as four years ago I hand quilted a quilt for a new grandson - a full size quilt, not a crib/baby size.
I have a form of spina bifida - meningoceles - cysts on my spine that cause nerve compression/damage... I'm in tremendous pain the whole time I try to hand quilt, along with cramping and muscle spasms... the problem I have is inside my body - not apparent - do I have to carry my medical records with me? Apologize because I'm disabled?
so lets see - I can either quit altogether or machine quilt, hmmmmm
not everybody can hand quilt, and I don't think machine quilters should have to apologize for using a machine - I've seen some FABULOUS machine quilting - and I'm not talking about the ones that press a computer button and let the machine do all the work...
I've seen hand quilting that was sloppy, shoddy, huge big stitches, puckers galore, and yet the person that did it was smirking because they "did it all by hand" - so - the point is?
And I've seen gorgeous hand quilting....
so just like everything else, it runs a huge gamut and nobody should feel like a 2nd class quilter just because they can't do something - whether it's hand or machine quilting...
I have a friend who makes beautiful quilt tops and she has them machine quilted by someone else - I don't smirk at her because I quilt my own... her quilts are wonderful, she makes HUGE big quilts of her own design, and the lady who does the quilting compliments the design by how she quilts it - a wonderful collaboration...
I live in an area of a gazillion quilters - hand workers, machine workers, frames, no frames, lap quilters, "send it out" quilters..... all types and abilities and nobody is told 'you aren't really quilting if you use a machine'....