here in my area it is really hard to find anyone who hand pieces any more. When I learned to quilt I did hand piecing but since then I have used my machine. Hopefully hand piecing will make a comeback it would be shame to lose that wonderful art.

Hi in North Carolina (my home too). I just started hand piecing and hand quilting early this year. My sister has done BOTH for at least 30 years. She got me started at the age of 70 and I LOVE IT. It's slow but very relaxing for me. I don't worry about how LONG it will take. I'm just enjoying the process and will really enjoy the finished project (it's a QS quilt). Yes, it's still around but we're no hearing about it as much (everyone doesn't use a computer and have access to this web site. We'll just keep finding the hand piecers and hand quilters.

i hand pc and think it's becoming a lost art along with hand quilting 9whichi do), so many people have gone the way of speedyness to get it done, i like the relaxation of fine quilting and not so fine quilting, just for the enjoyment of it. i quilt for myself and not for ribbons.

I love to hand piece, too. I like to be with my dh in the evenings and he likes to watch TV. Handpiecing gives me something productive to do. My avatar is a queen size yo yo quilt. I took about a year to finish it.

Right now in my small quilt group, there are three that are hand piecing just to have something to work on when they come to the group weekly. Nay quilting is not dying out, it is just evolving!

Sorry that I have been so late in posting, but we have not had an internet connection for awhile. Thanks everyone for your posts. I can see that hand piecing might not be popular, but neither is it dying out. That is encouraging!! Hand piecers, let's keep up the relaxing work. :)

I have always hand pieced. I only learned to machine piece this past year.. although I sew garments by machine I have also made them (garments) by hand. I do a bit of both now as I've developed rheumatoid arthritis and so I machine piece when it's giving me a fit. Some patterns (D9P) for instance have to be machine pieced.

am new to quilting--what isww D9P and why does it have to be machine pieced?