I get discouraged when I see so many custom quilted quilts in shows. I'm a hand quilter and have begun to feel that we are no longer appreciated. It also bugs me because it seems like a betrayal of quilting's origins. Nowadays you're made to feel like you can't compete if you don't have a $10,000 machine. Considering that not that long ago quilting was about necessity and making do, we may have gone too far in the other direction.
My mother had an acquaintance who sent her pieced top to a quilter in another state. Then she had the gall to enter it in our local show as her work. My mother was appalled and told her so.