I hand piece a few of my of my Dear Jane blocks.. with those small pieces it was easier to do the hand piecing...as someone else mentioned it was easier to work the seams as there were many... and I did enjoy doing this as it was fairly new to me. It is always a joy to relax and quilt...we are a very bless group to have found the love of quilting in our lives. :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

i love doing any kind of hand work. I am very much "old school" - no rotary cutter ( I would probably slice off my fingers with it). Old machines, hand quilting.

I was just looking at some of my "old" patterns the other day... the kind with templates. I was wondering if I still could make them or if I'd completely lost my touch for doing it old school.

I did make a quilts before the rotary cutter... There is a reason we are still finding parially cut and pieced quilt blocks and quilts. I won't go back ... everytime I pick up my rotary cutter ... I still marvel what this simple device enables !
Asking me if I would go back... ask me if I want to boil water on a pile of wood I had to cut/split, just to take a nice hot bath.!?! The answer is the same.

I guess I am a NERD then cause I feel I can do a better job sewing by hand than with a machine. And, I'd rather work with templates and a pattern. I understand them. I'm not too experienced with a rotary cutter and all of the different rulers and gadgets.

You said it, Scissor Queen! Like most things in life there is more than one way to do something, and I'm not about to 'look down' on someone else for doing something differently, or for making use of the newest advances to make things easier. I do often hand quilt because I enjoy it, but I use all the modern technology to make the parts of quilting I don't enjoy so much, easier. Doing things differently is what makes this site -- we get to enjoy all the wonderful creations of others and pick up some pointers and ideas along the way.

I understand about feeling a connection to the past doing thigs old school. I just started a king size quilt made with batiks but I'm piecing the whole thing on a treadle sewing machine. Then it will get quilted on our Intelliquilter (computerized) equipped long arm. And completed with hand finished binding. Definitely a mix of old and new.

no cant imagine only scissors and a needle and thread, my quilts would be UFO's forever, got my handquilt from high school almost 2 decades old and its still a UFO

i like the old patterns. That is a really nice one. Too many pieces for me is my immediate thought, then i remember that the "Best Friends" quilt i did last year had as many or almost as many per square. I machine piece and hand quilt for the most part.

I collect all the old patterns I can find, I just love to look thru them and feel that "connection". I use my rotary cutter, wouldn't give that invention up either, and machine piece as well. I was just curious, especially after finding a simplified and faster Burgoyne Surrounded block on the net, if any one used the older instructions with newer inventions. I personally, love to simplify anything I can but still get a greater sense of connection using the older specs for the same patterns. The piecing of individual squares, and rectangles instead of strip piecing everything, that kind of stuff. I have been working an EPP hexagon quilt for my middle son for over a year now and am really enjoying the process... however, I couldn't imagine doing all my quilts this way! My grandma still does everything with scissors and by hand so only finishes one quilt a year, and I am always so impressed by this. I guess I was inspired to ask after reading some diaries of pioneer women on the Oregon Trail in the mid-1800s, and how some of them talk about their sewing progress. Thanks for everyone's input, it is interesting to see all the different P-O-Vs. I believe any quilt is a "Real quilt", if made with love, no matter how it was constructed or quilted.