I would hand them back telling her that you cannot hand quilt them. When people give you things with strings attached, you should not feel obligated to take them. Sure, you want those pieces, but not at that price. OR you might find someone willing to hand quilt them for you for $$ - then you need to determine if you are willing to pay that much.

My 82 yr old mother does nothing but hand quilting and can't understand why the 'modern' women don't do it instead of using the 'tens of thousand dollar' machines. Your aunt probably feels the same way.

But I'll always remember that she wanted them hand quilted! I think the main problem is that I have alot of respect for her and I could never quilt them by hand as beautifully as she would have.

Don't feel guilted into hand quilting them. I would be honest with her, telling her that while you truly admire hand quilting, you have a different passion, which is machine quilting. Ask her if you would like for you to return the blocks so that she can give them to someone who will hand quilt them as she desires. Tell her that you would be honored to quilt them with your machine, and that you believe that you can make a wonderful heirloom quality quilt from them with that machine, but you will understand if she wants them back. What else can you do?

My aunt said that she gets great joy out of looking at something that she & I did together - I hope someday that you can look at those and think about something you did together (even if down the road you machine quilt it ;))

I agree, honesty is the best policy :D:D:D

The embrodery is Beautiful.