Hand piece, machine piece? Hand quilt, machine quilt?

I HATE to say it, but if it's hand pieced, she should hand quilt it. That's a lot of work, but it can be done in the evenings in front of the television. I, too, admire her initiative. I hand quilted four crib-size quilts, and I won't do another. Love my Mega Quilter and machine quilting those puppies!!!

I fit none of the descriptions in your opening paragraph. That said, throw my vote into the hat with the others - hand quilt! Seems a shame to do otherwise. And shoot, if at the end she's not sure it was worth it, then on one of the 7 (!!) others she can try machine and compare. :)

Oh goodness! I can't imagine piecing by hand, though I know that's the way it used to be done. After all that work, I would hand quilt as well. A totally hand-pieced quilt will be quite an heirloom. If it is too much to do all eight of the quilts totally by hand, then hand-quilt this one. She could piece the others on machine and hand-quilt them. I would love to see pics of her quilt.

I love hand quilting. I find it very relaxing. Yes, there are times when my hands ache and swell, but a little rest and a few prescription meds, and I am fine. A few years back I hand quilted Queen sized quilts for my mom and 4 sisters for Christmas. I only started machine quilting when the need for speed arose out of my Cardinal Glennon project. I plan on hand quilting a few this year. Currently hand quilting GD's Twin quilts for their birthdays at the end of Feb and middle of March. Then knock out several for the hospital on the machine.

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Originally Posted by NanaB

I HATE to say it, but if it's hand pieced, she should hand quilt it. That's a lot of work, but it can be done in the evenings in front of the television. I, too, admire her initiative. I hand quilted four crib-size quilts, and I won't do another. Love my Mega Quilter and machine quilting those puppies!!!

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Originally Posted by Meli

Since you mentioned competition, I'll tell you this story. My mom and Dad belonged to the Pioneer Heritage Company for many years and assisted with numerous reenactments. After awhile, mom realized she needed something to do to keep her hands busy, and started making garden path blocks. They come out mostly round and consist of dozens of 1" finished hexies, all paper pieced. After awhile, she decided to make it into a quilt that she and dad could use in their tent while doing the reenactments. When the top was all assembled, she had the two muslin pieces for the back pinned up and ready to zip through the machine to make the seam. She told me she had it under the presser foot, ready to go, when a little voice in her head said, "Ya know, if you hand stitch this seam, it'll be 100% hand stitched." Away went the machine. She mounted the top on a piece of unbleached muslin to give it straight sides. She quilted just inside each hexie, except for the green ones that made the "path". Then she echo-stitched hexies into the negative space on the muslin. When she went up to the State Fair to see how she'd done, she couldn't find her quilt for the longest time, until someone pointed out it was hanging proudly over the sweepstakes table, with a HUGE purple ribbon on it. While it was insanely labor intensive, the results were definitely worth it!

And that, my dear, is the long, rambling way round to voting in favor of hand quilting.

And tell your daughter I'm in awe!

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Beautiful story, Meli.
You may have lost me at 'negative space', but I think I know what it means to a quilter.
(I'm just trying to get a grip on piecing, and I am in AWE of you all.)
I don't know much about quilting, aside from hand-tying and a beginner's SITD...
But if a quilt top is hand-pieced, and hand-quilted, that's LEGACY. That's HERITAGE.
I wish I would have gotten into this sooner....

I have quite a few friends here that hand stitch their quilts. For them it seems to be time, like I saw one last weekend so pretty but she's going to have it long armed because its a gift and she needs to quilted fast. Normally she handquilts. I've done both it takes me forever to hand quilt a quilt, I have one in the works I'm going to because its a 1930 with appliqué so I decided to stay traditional. Hope she figures it out. Happy quilting

I admire anyone who can hand quilt. I have tried but i am the type that likes to finish up fast. I guess i will need to wait until i learn patience to tackle it again. Hand quilters are awesome!!!

I say hand quilt it too.

I've been thinking about finding a simple, small pattern and machine piecing and then hand quilting. Each evening I go back in the house at about 8:00 and have nothing really to do between 8 - 10 - so I've been thinking about what I might be able to do in those couple of hours.

I put together a lap quilt for my niece (its my avator) it was hand sewn and hand quilted.
I haven't done another since then, but am thinking I may do another. I love to hand quilt, its relaxing sitting in front of the TV 3 nights a week while I watch the new episodes of my favorite TV crime shows.

I don't find machine quilting to be that relaxing, as I have to constantly fight with my quilts to get them done, But I don't have a long or mid arm machine. I machine quilt on my Janome, and believe me it doesn't have that big of a harp.

I just need to learn some quilting designs to hand quilt.

My vote is to hand quilt it.

I also say to hand quilt it if you hand pieced it. I have only hand quilted several baby quilts; doubt if I could ever finish a large quilt by hand. I also agree that it would take away from the piece if she machine quilted it now.