Like Lindagor, I too paper pieced a Grandmother's Garden quilt top, most of it while sitting in the back seat of the car on the way to Penn. while husband and son did the driving.
Some seams are too short to sew on a machine, just think of all the wasted thread from starting and stopping. With needle and thread in hand, the mind needs to concentrate on the job and puts troubles and worries out of sight for a little while. And time heals everything.
Idle hands are the devil's workshop, anyone ever hear that before? Keep on stitiching.
Carol J.