As you stated, there is an emotional aspect to this problem. I'd just explain that I understand where he's coming from but that hand quilting a quilt that large was not in my skill set. If he still wants it hand quilted, hire someone to do it. It will still be special, because you did make it.

I do not do any hand quilting. Small throws and baby quilts I might attempt to machine quilt myself, however, I send all of my bed size quilts to the LAQ to finish. My vote goes to you.

I love the look of both machine and hand quilting. I have arthritic fingers so I don't do quilting by hand. I do however know women from my quilt club that do and two of them do it with thicker thread.....DMD Cebelia. They take bigger stitches and their quilts turn out absolutely beautiful. It still takes them a long time but not as long. The choice is really for the person who pieced the quilt together. And another thing to consider....if the quilt will be laundered frequently, it definitely should be machine quilted. So I think the choice would be yours to make.

I hand quilt. If i wanted a machine quilted quilt i would buy one from walmart.

I bought a hand quilted quilt from Penny's for $45.00. You can get either one cheaply if you have a need for a cheaper one.