My Mother taught me to hand quilt and I never considered doing anything else until I was faced with quilting a queen size in less than a month before Christmas. With all my other responsibilities, I knew I wouldn't be able to complete it in time so resorted to the machine, which for this particular quilt worked out just fine.
I still prefer to hand quilt small projects ... I find it relaxing and can sit comfortably and watch (or listen to) TV while I quilt. I'm happy to hear that so many people still hand quilt, as I think it's important that we carry on this tradition and talent that was passed down to us.
The advantage to machine quilting is that it is SO much faster, and I am looking forward to learning more about it, although it is a bit overwhelming. Some of the machine quilted quilts are truly beautiful, but I'm still partial to hand quilting and I enjoy the "old-fashioned" style of quilt. To me, there's nothing prettier than a hand quilted wholecloth quilt!