My sister does nothing but make quilts by hand. She has a cookie tin that she puts the stuff she needs and takes the tin wherever she goes. She can sit and sew anyplace she wants to (unlike us machine people). She has made all her quilts that way. She does absolutely beautiful work. All of them (except the Chinese Coin) have been her own design with embellishments (lace, ribbon, stuff) and are fantastic. She says it is more relaxing for her. She doesn't have to sit in front of a machine. She can sit on the dock, watch the fish jump, listen to the birds and watch the loons and sew to her heart's content. Not a bad way either. I embroider. That's my hand work. I have made quilts by embroidering 12" squares. And just when I thought I had a darn good idea on how to learn to quilt, I see they had patterns for redwork quilts. And that was from a long time ago. Good things last. Edie