Hand quilting - Lost art???
 

I am so happy to see when quilters post their hand quilted items.

I often wonder if if hand quilting will become like letter writing and fade away due to new technology -

Letter writing is becoming more scarce since the emails and texting have advanced.

What do you think? Will hand quilting fade away due to the new long arm machines and new ways to quilt as you go and FMQ - I certainly hope not but I hear less people talking about hand quilting versus machine.

I think hand quilting is the ULTIMATE in skill!

After reading your post, it reminded me of the days when secretaries used shorthand. I took 2 years of shorthand in school - never used it afterwards. Dictaphones and transcribers were used. Believe it or not, I still have a transcriber! Fortunately, I have a friend who still quilts by hand - when she has the time.

I quilt by hand and took shorthand. I can still write "simutaneously" in shorthand. That was a word in a letter she was dictating and I was shocked. I said Geez outloud and everyone laughed, including the teacher. Never forgot that word. I love quilting by hand though. I love the look of it more than by machine. Mine isn't perfect but neither am I. I can hand quilt and be in the livingroom with my family, can't do that with machine quilting. I also embroider by hand and piece by hand.

In our small town, there are two long-arm quilters who do lovely work--and at least ten or twelve of us who hand quilt our projects. Usually full size or larger quilts are done as group projects, great way to spend time with friends. Both of our daughters are hand-quilters, too, although the quilts for small children's beds are usually done by machine. What goes around comes around, and hand quilters will continue to teach others. piecefully, the old one

My mother, both grandmothers and their mothers are all hand quilted-so i grew up learning how to handquilt--but my 2 daughters seem to have no interest at this point in their lives and currently none of the other family members have an interest. It is definitely becoming a lost interest--however THEY LOVE to receive them!!!

I love to hand quilt and did it for many years for myself as well as other people, however due to arthritis I no longer can do it. My quilts are done by a LA. there ae a few in my group that still do it. I do occasionally write letters as I don't text. Took two years of shorthand in school and never used that because in nursing it wasn't warranted.

That's funny. Simultaneously in shorthand is as long as it is in longhand.

I quilt by hand. I tried that freemotion and stitch in the ditch stuff. It was a hideous experience. I would much rather prop my feet up on my easy chair foot stool, arrange the quilt on my lap, and hand quilt sans any kind of frame or hoop. I've never made anything smaller than a queen.

My hand quilting isn't perfect and I make no effort to squeeze a bunch of tiny stitches into a small space.

I suppose I'm a little snooty about it. Machine quilting is.....well, sewing.

I cheat, though, and sew the pieces together by machine.

Another hand quilter here who also took shorthand. Guess that's showing our ages, eh? I actually used shorthand when I first started working and never could get the hang of a dictaphone. I used to listen to the dictation on the machine, take it down in shorthand and then type it up! I do machine piece, although I have also hand pieced a quilt. I machine quilt charity quilts that require it but I, too, far more enjoy sitting in my LR watching TV w/DH and quilting away. In fact, getting ready to sandwhich and start the next one!

I will always be a handquilter. I do machine quilt the many Linus quilts I make in order to produce a generous amount. They also will have to bear a lot of laundering from people, generaly not familiar with handwork. To me handquilting is portable, and relaxing and can be very social. I have a number of friends who have long arms. Several of them do it as a business and are quickly burning out. I am not physically able to stand at such a machine for the time it takes to complete a quilt. It isn't long before longarming becomes like a factory job. Most of my friends who do it say the worst part is loading and unloading the machine. Since my favorite part of quilting is the actually quilting I am not interested in ever owning or even operating a longarm machine.