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

Listen up - I am being very, very serious now. This is for all you die-hard quilters with lots and lots of successful stories. Those who quilt and quilt and quilt and have even considered showing off their talents in a quilt show or other competition.

My daughter is a hand piecer. Her stitches, by hand, are as fine as I have ever seen. Seasoned quilters have said her stitching is so fine as to look as if it could have been machine stitched. It is truly spectacular.

Yes, I know, I'm her mother and I certainly am no comparison and I am rightfully proud.

She has a quilt ready to finish up - all hand stitched. Now she is questioning whether she should try to hand quilt it as well, given she wants to make seven more, or that it would be just as well machine quilted (knowing that I have a long-arm quilting machine . . . which does have a mind of its own).

What do you think? She is definitely waffling back and forth right now. (Hormonal!!!!)

Now this is a hard question. My personal opinion is that if she has that kind of talent, and she has pieced the entire thing by hand, it would be a dishonor to her beautiful work to machine quilt it. I opt for hand quilting. That being said, if she hand-quilts with perle cotton, small crotchet thread or embroidery floss, the stitches aren't as small and she could quilt it quicker. IMHO. She can echo quilt the piece work 1/4" in and I think it would be stunning. Am sure there will be other opinions though, lol. BTW I am no where near good enough to enter anything ;)

I agree with Marilyn. If you hand piece, then finish it by hand as well.

Beats the heck out of me!!!!

I know - I'm no help!

I have to be honest, Sandy. After hand piecing each block (can't even wrap my brain around that), why now turn to a machine, to finish off? The hardiest, old timer would do the opposite. Machine piece, hand quilt. And how many amongst us, do that??
But she hand pieced each square? JAYZEE. Any appreciation of hand piecing will be locked in the batting and backing.
How long did it take her to hand-piece a top?
She's going to live to be an old, old lady and she has plenty of time for seven more.

Yes I would go for hand quilting.

I agree with Marilyn, if she used perle cotton the stitches would be larger and it would go faster...hand quilt for sure!

I vote for hand quilting.......but I would never get 7 more done this way! They will be heirlooms though, I am sure!

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!

I have hand pieced four quilt tops. I have yet to finish the hand quilting of them. However, I have recently gotten into machine piecing and quilting. I found hand piecing very relaxing, extremely portable and beautifully accurate. My corners ALL match. You have such control.
Now that I am retired I plan on picking up on the machine work to see if I can achieve a similar degree of accuracy. But I still plan to hand quilt those original quilt tops. I plan on trying out the thimble lady's technique. Watched her on you tube and even bought one of her thimbles.
Beth

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.

I say go for hand quilting.

However, (mainly based on size of project)...I would never ever ever be caught hand piecing.

Since she wants to do 7 more, I am assuming that these are all for her children? I say she needs to hand quilt. She put all that work in already, machine quilting would to me take away from its true beauty. She can save them til each one gets married and give to them as a wedding gift. This will give her time.
I would love to hand piece and hand quilt a quilt for each of my children....I only have 3.
Is there any chance of seeing pics of it, even before quilting? Please?

Thanks for all the wonderful comments - as soon as the world slows down and I can get off for a while, I'll post pictures of her work.