I machine quilt the quilts that will be 'dragged to the beach', or ones that will be used a lot. Save my had quilting for special quilts. It takes a long time to hand quilt a full/queen size quilt. I do my handquilting in the evenings while sitting with my DH.

I love the results of hand quilting. Someone told me that hand quilting lasts longer as there is not one single thread that can be pulled and unstitching done as with a machine.
To me I feel I have more control with the stitches by hand than by machine. I have a 114 inch quilt that I am going to put into a frame and hand quilt (just as soon as I make the frame!)

Laura, once I have the pattern on the netting, I pin it to the quilt and trace using chalk pencils. I can use Prismacolor pencils, but they don't transfer as clearly. Once I have the pattern traced, I go over the marks without the netting - that makes them dark enough to see.

I do have to be careful not to distort the pattern - the netting isn't stable and can stretch a bit if I have to reuse it for a border. I don't think my borders ever come out exactly the same on all 4 sides, but they're close enough.

This method does allow me to transfer a complicated design without spending as much time making templates as quilting would take!

As for quilting without a hoop, I've never done it. I use a floor frame, and a hoop for small projects. I like the frame because it's sturdy and I don't have to balance the hoop while I try to make stitches.

I'm new to quilting, only a little over a year, but I love to hand quilt. I'm not great at either hand or machine quilting but the hand quilting seems to be more relaxing to me. The quilt in my avatar is one of the first quilts I made in an intro to piecing class that I took last spring and I hand quilted it. I'm am now hand quilting a king sized log cabin quilt that I am making for a friend as a wedding gift.

I was looking at a Jinny Beyer CD that teaches you to hand piece and I think I'm going to order it just to try something different. It is so amazing that the quilts made in the 1800 were hand pieced and hand quilted and they were just beautiful

I love to hand quilt. I am trying to get better at machine quilting, but I find I have so much more control with hand quilting! I'm finding more stores are starting to carry hand quilting supplies again so I'm wondering if more people are starting to go back to it. Sure hope that is the case as I don't want this to end up being a dying art form.

I do both, but I only hand quilt with a group or on a project that doesn't have to be finished soon. My machine quilting is a lot better than my hand quilting IMHO.

I am teaching myself to hand quilt. It's pretty cool to see how your progress each day, stiches getting smaller. I am spoon quilting, easier on my fingers.

I hand quilt all my quilts don't have the space for a machine not as good as I should be but I still like doing it.

I am working on hand quilting Grandmother's flower garden with 1930's fabric. It seems mostly everyone does machine quilting but I really enjoy hand quilting: it's portable and relaxing for me.

Beautiful work!! I have only hand quilted some pillows. I have arthritis in my hands and that limits the time I can work at it. I love the look though and have a couple of old bed size quilts that have been completely hand pieced and quilted. I love them to pieces... :thumbup: :lol: