I am really curious but not because I am ready to do either yet,
what do you do and why would you chose one over the other?
All this reading about quilt making has more and more questions coming to mind. Thanks! :?:

I have done both but nothing fancy just very basic. I love doing both of them though.

i do them both and typically in the same quilt.

i like machine quilting for thin and dense stitching and i like hand quilting for thick and spaced stitches.

they both have a distinct look and add different texture to a project.

i can hand quilt with much thicker threads than i can thru my machine.

When I started quilting I hand quilted, because there were no machine quilters, or none that I knew of. When I wanted to start selling my quilts, I couldn't sell them for anything near what I thought they were worth. So, after wearing my fingers out, I started having the quilts machine quilted and was able to sell a few.

I prefer to hand quilt as that is how my Great Aunt did it. I am not really good at it but I like the process and the look. I am a terrible machine quilter. Can't stay in the ditch and my meandering looks primitive. I always felt I could buy a boughten quilt with machine stitching but not a hand quilted one. Nothing against people who machine quilt. I have seen beautiful quilts here done on the machine, and could never master that in hand quilting. So I guess it comes down to what you like to do. Both ways take practice.

In my humble opinion (IMHO) hand quilting looks so beautiful, but you really have to know how to do it. Practice on doll quilts! Even a beginner hand quilted quilt appeals to me more than a machine sewn quilting job. That being said, you really have to love hand quilting to devote the time to learn the craft. It sure is much easier to send our tops to a long armer. And the long arm quilters do beautiful and sturdy work. I use them a lot. Try a quilt both ways and see what you prefer. I would love to see contemporary quilters utilize both methods, depending on the quilt. And there's even a third process, machine quilting yourself. Try that too. There's no reason that your quilts can't be quilted different ways. If you evaluate what your quilt needs, you should be able to come up with a plan.

thats interesting, whenever someone mentions machine quilting i always assume their asking about doing it themselves. i never think they're talking about sending it out to be done by someone else.

Hand quilting lends an heirloom quality to a special quilt. I do hand quilting with the ladies at church and I dearly love the process. It is a special quilt that is hand quilted. I am machine quilting my wall hangings and table toppers and some ornaments because I want to get them done, and they are small enough for me to use my machine and to learn how to do FMQ. I am getting ready to machine quilt a top that I have yet to assemble.

Machine only if I ever want the quilt done. I think hand quilting is beautiful - just not for and by me.

I love hand quilting and am awed by those who do it. I am too lazy. Period.