I find this discussion very interesting. As a hand quilter I don't have any problems like "back-tracking". I know this is a world where everyone wants things done faster and faster. The most recent commercial quilt shows I have attended are dominated by long arm machines. I am sorry but using one of them makes me think of working in a sewing factory. I make upwards of 21 Linus quilts each month. At least half of them are usually machine assembled and machine quilted simply. The only reason I machine quilt them is because the child who ends up with one of them probably has parents that are not at all familiar with quilts. I know from experience with my own grandchildren that the quilts a child receives are usually dragged to death and washed as often as weekly. As good as my hand quilting is it would not survive with that much abuse long enough to become an heirloom. The other quilts needed to finish my 21 are usually pieces of fleece finished with a crocheted edge. The Linus Project requests that the same child only be given one quilt. I know from thank you notes that I have received that children, often those with multiple hospitalizations, are given one each time they enter the hospital. I have received notes that state that the child liked mine better than the last one he or she received, proof that they had already received one in the past. In my 40+ years of hand quilting I have never had a problem with a "grown up" quilt falling apart or loosing stitches. My cat sometimes does damage when he gets a claw caught in a stitch. I have probably a dozen hand quilted quilts of various sizes from queen to throw that are scattered about my house. All are hand quilted and still going strong. Hand quilting allows me to carry on a conversation or enjoy a TV program while getting some quilting done. If it is a small project it is totally portable. Don't knock it till you give it a try. I hand quilt on a floor frame with a small group of ladies at our local Senior Center on Monday mornings. We only quilt for about 1 1/2 hours but we get a queen size quilt done every year in more than enough time to be raffled off to benefit the center each year. At this point we have one already finished to be raffled off next year and are only a month or two away from finishing another.