Anything I use my hands to construct is hand-made and that includes if I open a box of mac & cheese, cook it, and serve it--that's hand made. Every quilt show I've attended has categorized every entry by hand-pieced, machine-pieced, hand-quilted, machine-quilted or any combination of the above. There is no doubt how an item was created and there shouldn't be derision about what ever one chooses to do. It's all about creating beautiful objects and as long as the method is distinguished there should be no problems.

Personally, I think it should be fully disclosed machine or hand stitched. Better to avoid confrontation. You could always say "Hand made by machine." Or Hand made with machine stitching.

When I hear hand made I do think it was all done by hand, needle and thread instead of machine.

But I put this in the same catagory as Hand Guided or Computerized Quilting. I think it should be fully disclosed as to which was done.

As I said, that is my opinion, I don't like being mis-led in any way so I try not to do it to others.

Maybe the distinction between handsewn and homemade is confusing to some...
If something is advertised as handsewn, I would expect the whole item to be that.
If something is advertised as homemade, I would think it could all be done by machine, or part hand sewn. There are a lot of hand made heirlooms, handed down throughout the years, that were made on the very first treadle machines....
Just my 2 cents worth :wink:

HI. I use the term homemade but my mother keeps telling everyone
my projects I give her are handmade. When I correct her she sais "well
you made it with your hands didn't ya?" Okay I guess she is right.
With people doing actual handsewn projects though I think they deserve their own term of handmade. I admire those people that do handsewn
projects because there is alot more time and effort in them. So I guess its how you look at it. I was at a quilt show one day that had handsewn
in a project sheet so when I got to looking it was machine done. So I guess its a preference of who did the quilt. I do not do any handsewing except the binding so I use the term homemade myself.
Have an awesome day. :D
Kim

Words can evoke emotions and preconceived pictures rather than being definitive. So you're aleady thinking quality of craftmanship before seeing an item. It's a marketing tool in lots of advertisements.

I never knew there was so much flack over hand and home made. When I label a quilt, I put machine pieced and hand quilted by me. Or I put hand pieced and quilted by me. If I had it quilted, I put machine pieced by me and machine quilted by ------, giving the name of my quilter and always the date!
I know we have all see lovely quilts done either way!
Dix

just when I think we might have exhausted all the different quilting topics...LOL...will we ever do that :roll: :lol:
It's funny, I have never thought about these things, just kind of accepted that all my stuff is handmade, and I use a machine.
Where i live, I think if you say something with fabric is homemade, it means it is poor quality, but if you say your cake is homemade, it means top quality...go figure! :D

I am a hand stitcher.. I used to get really frustrated about shops that sold items marked as handmade when they were stitched on machine. After much consideration I have come to appreciate that even items sewn with a machine are handmade.. HOWEVER.. when someone in a shop tries to pass off a machine stitched item as hand stitched it does get my Irish up.
I have come to differentiate items that are handmade into 2 catagories.. either hand stitched or machine stitched.

Yes, there's a difference between 'hand quilted' and 'machine quilted.' But MOST of us know that 'machine' quilting is neither EASIER nor FASTER, because it takes practice, preparation and time - much like hand quilting does - to be mastered.

Many people send their quilts out to be machine quilted by someone else. It's time that we stop being prickly about one being 'better' than the other. They're different skills.

I used to (and still wish I could) hand quilt. Arthritis in my dang thumbs put an end to that. I haven't mastered machine quilting, but I'm learning. And as for Free Motion - I am in awe of the women who do it! True artists!

Since I am a hand quilter, I always label my quilts as Machine pieced and Hand quilted.