Like you I love to hand quilt. It is my form of meditation and I get some of my best ideas and memories when doing so.
I can also understand the time contraints of working women, moms
with small children, etc. Machine quilting is beautiful in its own way and it's better to machine quilt than not to quilt at all.
Being retired, I don't have those constraints and have found more attributes to hand quilting: a way to lose myself in thought when in pain; a way to calm down after getting bad news; a way to revisit funny or fond memories of the person for whom the quilt has been made, or to say a prayer for the new baby who's life is just beginning.
Don't despair.....As long as there are retired women -- there will be hand quilters!
Marveen
in sunny Tucson