A large quilt can be very overwhelming. But I personally love hand quilting and do it all the time. With winter coming it's a good time to be curled up with a big quilt in front of a roaring fire with a nice glass of wine handy. I have found that if I set a goal for myself... (I'm going to finish this section by Friday)... and stick to my goal, I don't get frustrated and it gets quilted sooner. Although I admire machine quilting and don't see anything wrong with it at all, I personally don't get the same satisfaction as I do from hand quilting. But, it's purely a personal choice.

I TOTALLY agree! :D

I understand. I was that way with my granddaughters quilt and it wasn't very big. I finally took it apart, changed batting and I am going to machine quilt it. I will hand quilt one that I'm not intimated by.

IMO, hand quilt because you enjoy it. If you aren't, then machine quilt it. I wish I could hand quilt every quilt, but I am slow, so I am choosey about which quilts I will hand quilt. Right now I don't have anything ready to hand quilt and I am missing it. I don't know if I will ever machine quilt anything, so far I have only practiced and am amazed how hard it is, stressful, not relaxing at all, for me. Do you need this quilt to be done by a certain date? If not, try to relax and enjoy the process. Have another project going (piecing or machine quilting) that gives you the feeling of getting something done quickly.

Good advise having another project going to give you that feeling of getting something done quickly.

I agree with these two. Set your goals on finishing partial sections of the large quilt, so that you are reaching a goal regularly. And work on a machine pieced quilt to have that satisfaction as well.

Quilts have been machine pieced and quilted since sewing machines were first invented :wink: Do what makes you happy and less stressed!
Unless, you think you would really regret machine quilting it in the future. You can always put it up for a while, until you are ready to tackle it :D:D:D

I think it was Jenny Beyer who said one of her prize quilts took 6 years [or so] to finish because she hand quilts. She had made other quilts during that time.

Do what you want to do. If it becomes too much, do something else for a while. Have fun with it.

ali

do what you enjoy doing---the are no rules --i find it nice to have some hand work to pick up when i feel like it --i have no guilty feelings if i jump from one to the other --just enjoy

Remember that in the late 1800's a number of quilts were quilted on machine in order to show that you could afford a machine. YOU decide what you like to do and then do it. I personally think "hand" is a 4-letter word and avoid it if at all possible!