By hand or machine?

When I was a new quilter in 1985 I took a quilting class at the local craft store. Back then we were taught how to cut out the pieces with scissors and used cardboard templates. Towards the end of the class, our teacher showed us a tool that looked like a pizza cutter. She told us this was a Rotary Cutter and would speed cutting time. Of course we all laughed and said it could not take the place of scissors! HA!

About that same time, my sister in law took a class at a quilt shop. She learned Eleanor Burns Quilt in A Day pattern for the Log Cabin. She shared with me how quick and easy it was to use this method (using a rotary cutter). And as the saying goes, the rest is history.

I started this quilt around 1986. I purchased 100% cotton fabrics from a quilt shop. My plan was to make a quilt for my then toddler son. We worked on the Log Cabin pattern, and I completed the top. It was my goal to hand quilt this quilt.

So I started working on it, but did not make very speedy progress. Hand quilting took a lot of time. As a matter of fact it was not completed until 2004!

This is one of my favorite quilts and the only one I completely hand quilted. It was fun to work on, and I love how the colors all worked together.

Do you quilt by hand or machine? Or do you send your quilts out to a longarmer?