I've made a number of fabulous hand appliqued quilts---machine quilted them--and sold them for a lot of $$...I've made a few small quilts and hand quilted them- for me I do what I want at the moment---and size matters- I am willing to hand quilt a small project on occasion- but when it comes to large quilts I machine quilt them because I am WAY too impatient to spend a year or more quilting a quilt...when I could have a couple dozen done in the same time. either way is fine- do what you want- it's yours...and machine quilting does not take away from the quality of the quilt (even if there are still people out there who feel differently- both techniques are acceptable)