That's rotten. Maybe you could ask around local quilters, see if there are any who are interesting in hand-sewing but never got around to it? Quilting is a fairly slow, laborious process even by machine, and people who have already started quilting of some sort may be less put off by the idea of this slow but rewarding craft.
Of course, I am always hearing machine quilters who say that they could never imagine hand-sewing, so it may not work, but worth a shot?