I also had a bad experience with a quilting shop. I hand quilt also and noticed all the quilts that were showing were machine quilted. I asked if anyone hand quilted and was told people are too busy. Well then...why quilt at all? To me the art of quilting is hand quilting, not many people can do that...the way I see it....anyone can machine quilt.

I also had the same "help" you had a one of my local stores. They were only interested in selling the expensive things at twice the price of on line place4s. They are now out of business.

I also had the same "help" you had a one of my local stores. They were only interested in selling the expensive things at twice the price of on line place4s. They are now out of business.

I have hand quilted for about 30 years. I have done lots of quilts for may self as well as others . I have done quilts for others on a per quilt basis. Cost varies. I have no desire to have a long arm and I am not a fan of long arm quilting. I think that is like factory made because they are trying to turn out quilts in quantity rather than quality and tradition. Hang in there and do your own thing and what you love.

Remember the metal snap toys you held in your hands and when you pushed a metal strip the toy would make the clicking snap sound? That is what an Aunt Becky looks like to me, the metal stip. I found a basket full of them at a flea market type store. The girl selling them had no idea what they were. I got them for .50 each, still in the package. I've given most of them away. The video how to use it is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVXSGob_lKo

I also do hand quilting and sorry to be so dense, but what is an "Aunt Becky". Never heard of it.

I hand quilt and love it, I will always hand quilt. But I have done some machine quilting and anyone can do it but not everyone can do it well. It is very difficult to do. It takes a very creative eye and a steady hand. It isn't just sit and sew away. I admire those who machine quilt the beauties we see here, I doubt I could ever do what they do. They are artists and enjoy quilting as much as a hand quilter, it's just another example of different strokes for different folks. I'm so glad they are around, the fabric choices and tools have gotten so much better since machine quilting became popular.

I would love to learn to hand quilt, I think it would be nice to know how to do both. You can't always take a sewing machine with your when you go to other peoples homes and want something to do in the evening.
I just wish I could find somebody who would be willing to show me how to properly set up a quilt on a hoop, can't afford a quilt frame, then show me the proper way to hand quilt either with or without the Aunt Betty.

Ashley, I live in Knoxville, too, and I have a pretty good idea which LQS you went to that wasn't very helpful! Let's face it, there are quilt stores and then there are GOOD quilt stores! There is at least one in this town I will NOT go to unless I am really desperate! I called them once looking for the 1895 series of Hoffman batiks. They didn't have a clue what I was talking about -- I mean, there are only about 350 different colors in that series and it has existed for quite a few years!

Thank you. As a longarm quilter, I was beginning to feel like the red-headed step-child. I can hand quilt too, just don't like it, but I don't bash those who do enjoy hand quilting. Completely different skill set, just like those with computerized longarm systems...different skill then hand-guided longarm quilting. I can't quilt by moving my quilt in my DSM, but I admire the work done by those who can. We are lucky that there are so many ways for us to create the quilts we love, why can't all kinds of quilting be appreciated for the art that it is? The LQS that treated AshleyR so shabbily is no different from hand quilters saying a quilt that is machine quilted really isn't a quilt. I think there is room for all kinds of quilting. If we all liked and did the same thing, that would just be boring!

I just wish AshleyR could come by my LQS, she is an awesome hand quilter and happy to share her art. She has lots of thread, needles and other cool things that hand quilters use, but she doesn't have anything I can use for longarm quilting! Except, of course, the quilts she has me quilt for her and all the yummy fabric!