Your work is so pretty and I sure do love hand quilting. I am still in the beginners stage but hopefully will improve with time. Thank you for sharing such beautifuland special work.

What I think is WOW OH WOW! Very beautiful. I want to do this type of work.

Two of my sons live in Bend. A beautiful area of the country. I haven't been out in almost a year. Usually Thanksgiving and summer/spring.

Beautiful quilts. There was more hand quilting at the shows I went to this winter, but have to agree -everyone says how fast can I piece this and get it to someone to FMQ for me. Your work is just beautiful.

I love this board! Your quilts are absolutely gorgeous!

I am new to quilting and am enjoying learning to hand quilt. I love the quilting process. I love the slowness and quiet that comes with hand quilting...very meditative. I do notice when I walk into the LQS (if they are a machine dealer) and I say I hand quilt the "clerks" do not seem as interested in helping. And I am finding out that it is difficult in my area to find hand quilting classes. But I will continue hand quilting.

Thanks for the added motivation and encouragement.

Your quilts are extraordinary! These are heirloom quilts to be treasured and handled with care. Most people want to make quilts or other items (bags, tablerunners etc) as gifts, and cannot devote the time it would take to hand quilt, so machine quilting is the answer. I was taught to quilt by my sister 6 years ago. She taught me how to hand quilt, because that is what she knows. As a result, I hand quilt. If I had not had her guidance, and had taken quilting up on my own and gone to a LQS for help, as many quilters have, I probably would be a machine quilter. I have recently been experimenting with FMQ for tablerunners and baby quilts, but I don't think I could ever machine quilt a larger quilt. Over the years I have come to really appreciate good machine quilting, it is a talent and skill that takes years of practice, and can create amazing works of art.
I think of quilting like any art form, there are many branches. In painting, you could use oil, pencil, watercolor, you could paint portraits or landscapes. Hand quilting or machine quilting is just a choice in how you want to create your piece of art. To each his own. I enjoy hand quilting, but it is slow. At my house, there always has to be a quilt in the frames so I can sit down at any time and do a few stitches. It is like breathing, must be done!

Beautiful work, I love hand quilting too:)

Jeanine,

Your Baltimore Album quilt is fantastic. Your choice of colors is beautiful. The quilting is great.

Quilter68(who will be 70 soon and will change the siggy,)

To Quilter68

Thanks. It was fun to do. Colors chosen to match her vanity skirt plus green for her irish husband.

I love the hand quilting in your masterpiece. When we were on vacation in Florida in May a friend of mine pulled out a quilt she had made 30 years ago and has carried it with her thru 3 moves. It wasn't finished so I had her mail it home to me (suitcase didn't have room). It has taken me from May 16 til now to get the blocks hand stitched. No real uniform distance between each stitch but it looks ok. I am about hald done with it. It's rather large so it takes some maneuvering. I have one of my quilts almost done and I am thinking of hand stitching that one. It's the pinwheels. I am going to try to do the stitch in a ditch and see how it comes out. Machine work is as you said easier and faster but sometimes the thrill of the handmade is just so thrilling. I have been watching garage sales for a nice quilting frame so I can set it up to show a larger area to work with. Have an enjoyable summer.

Your hand quilting is amazing. I also do hand quilting. I have hand quilted 3 quilts, 1 king size and 2 full size. And I have also hand quilted several wall hangings.
You can check them out on my webshots below:
As far as having time to hand quilt, some of us need to get off the computer and then we would have time to handquilt.