Eliza,
I am sure you will enjoy this board. It is nice to be able to talk about quits with folks who understand.
re: hand quilting being a lost art...I am predominantly a hand quilter. In then past ten years or so I have watched machine quilting become much more popular. I have also seen the quality of machine quilting improve, becoming an art form in itself. So I am teaching myself machine quilting. My output has increased. I think this is why machine quilting has become so popular. People want a finished product in less time. But I think there is a satisfaction that comes from hand quilting that I don't get from machine quilting.