Wow! Looks like a lot of us are in the same boat. I recently finished piecing a fairly large wall hanging, and started hand quilting. Now, hand quilting is my favorite part of quilting but no matter what I tried on this wall hanging it didn't look right. The wall hanging clearly told me to machine quilt. Having to pull out hand quilting stitches always scares me because I'm afraid I'm going to snag the fabric. A couple of weeks ago someone on this board (I wish I could remember who!) mentioned that she uses a small metal crochet hook to remove stitches. I tried it, and it works great! Pulls the thread without damaging the quilt top! Whoever that was who recommended that, thank you thank you thank you!