ckcowl

If you enjoy hand piecing then put some together by hand, if you want to hurry your project along do some by machine. You can make a quilt that contains both hand and machine pieces. I love to sit and stitch while watching a movie or ball game, waiting in waiting rooms, traveling; but then when I have machine time I do that which helps move the project along. Just depends on what you enjoy. For me it's easier to hand piece little pieces. I always have a small ( travel/hand kit ) I can grab when time allows & I have a basket sitting next to my machine with pieces I can work on some before or after working on other projects.

luvstoquilt

I love to hand piece when I use small pieces. I find it relaxing and I remember my grandmother.

KalamaQuilts

I have two shoeboxes behind my machine with neutral and color 1.5" scraps in them.
I use them as leaders and enders so the machine is never left without fabric in it.
I have 1000's of them I'm sure, worked into light and dark 4 patches.

When I get to making them into a top it will be fabulous.
I once enjoyed hand stitching blocks but not anymore. If doing hand work I do english paper piecing.

Quilt30

Don't let anyone discourage you from hand piecing. We all have our preferences. It is a good take along project and with time you have a new quilt.

tropit

I don't know about everyone else, but personally, I love chain piecing on the machine. I put some good music on and just lose myself sewing along. Also, you're working with such small pieces and so many seams, I'd think that machine stitching with the stitch gauge set to small stitches would make the seams more durable and secure.

~ C

MarionsQuilts

While I would never even attempt to hand piece a quilt top, I do commend you on even thinking about it.

If you are looking to make sure that all of your points line up perfectly, and want to save some time (not a lot, but some), I did a trip around the world quilt using 2 inch squares but I used a fusible grid.

It is interfacing that has a 2 inch grid (you can buy different sizes of grids) and you place your squares in the grid, in the order that you want them. Then you iron the squares, and they stick.

Next step is to fold the first "row" over and you can see the line on the back ... you then sew your 1/4 inch seam all the way down. Do the to all of the rows.

BEFORE you turn it around to do the other rows (sewing across the first set of rows you just sewed), you need to trim the seam at each corner).

Then you fold the first row over, and sew your 1/4 inch seam and repeat until it is done.

Perfect squares and they all line up perfectly.
It will be a very heavy quilt tho, because the interface stays in there!

Just a thought!

Good luck with your decision on how to do it!

Sephie

Marion did it the way I would do it for a regular postage stamp quilt. Elizabeth Hartman did a great tutorial on this method over on SMS. Another alternative is to use washaway stabilizer but it's much more expensive than the fusible interfacing. However, then you wouldn't have the weight of the interfacing. You can buy a bolt of it at a big box store online, but the downside is you're supposed to rinse out the stabilizer before you sandwich and quilt it, so then you have the hassle of re-ironing the whole wrinkly mess after it dries. This is what I'm looking forward to when I make my pixel quilt

magicmoonmusings

I prefer handwork and would piece those over paper, using the English Paper Piecing method. If EPP isn't your thing, then Jinny Beyer is an excellent resource for traditional hand piecing. Her free Craftsy BoM class has fantastic hand piecing videos.

lindaschipper

If you make a tiny Irish Chain I would cut a 1 1/2" strip of solid fabric and then chain your tiny squares to it...you can then cut it apart and have a little something bigger to work with. Was just a thought......

illinois

I may have posted something about a postage stamp quilt that was discovered among my former in-laws belongings. It was about the same size pieces that you mention and done by hand--queen size! Well, it became quilted by machine and I hated it. Because of the dimensions of the stamps, the machine stitches were quite noticeable. I could see your stamps being a good project to put in your purse for wait time for appointments but I highly recommend them being quilted by hand when that time comes.