I'm still new, but I can't imagine myself ever getting into machine quilting. I'll do the piecing by machine, but I actually *like* the insane time investment of hand quilting, and I don't much care for the look of machine quilting. And on a more me-personally level, quilting time is usually evenings on the couch next to my honey. He detests the sound of the machine, so I'd miss out on a lot of excellent time spent with him if I did more machine work.