I still have the first quilt that I hand quilted. I love it because I can see my journey that began in the middle of the quilt with imperfect stitches and ended at the top and bottom with pretty even, small stitches. I have only hand quilted and I have made a lot of quilts over the last 30 years. It really doesn't take that long if you work on it a little bit each day. To me it's relaxing to sit in a comfortable chair at the end of the day and do a bit of quilting. Good luck, I hope your enjoy your quilts. In my opinion you just can't beat a hand quilted quilt.