Originally Posted by rhueluna
Ha ha ha! I think there are a lot of us out there. The big machine companies sponsor everything so of course they are pushing to sell those things and brain wash everyone to think thats the way to go. It is actually if you want to whip them out and make a blanket for everyone, but if you want an heirloom quilt, you need to do it like quilts were meant to be done in the first place.
I'm sorry, but I'm grateful for machine quilters, and for the machine manufacturers. They help ensure that we have quilt fabric, thread, needles and quilt shops where we can buy them. If the quilting industry waited for everyone to hand quilt their tops, our choices for these things would be pitiful.
Hand quilting is one way of finishing a quilt. It is no better or worse than any other way. I'll take a well-done, beautifully machined quilted quilt over a poorly-done hand quilted one any day (ever look closely at a quilt from China???).
Machine quilting has opened doors so that many women (and men!) can have their own business. Yes, you can do that with hand quilting, but I don't think you could support yourself that way.
And by the way....I hand quilt.