AnnieH

ditto.
Annie

mpspeedy

As a lifelong handquilter I would have no problem with setting the frame up in the room where we spend time as a family watching TV etc. Get started on it and let him see how long it is taking. For me it would probably only take three months max and I would have an excuse to enjoy all of my favorite TV and or radio shows. It is hard to do either while machine quilting. I believe you mentioned your age as being on the verge of retirement. If your husband is fast approaching that time in your lives you will be seeing a whole lot more of him. It might be a good time to start a project together. If you teach him to handquilt you can work together and maybe this will be a way to ease both of you into your new lives as a retired couple. Once he tries quilting he will either love it or suddenly have a new and improved respect for you and all you do.
My husband retired at 65 and stayed home for about six months. Those were the longest 6 months in our marriage. He went back to work and now six years later has just announced that he is going to retire again in June. I am making sure that he knows that I do certain things with our without him. It will not be easy but that is part of marriage and life in general.

NJ Quilter

I guess I'm in the minority here. I almost exclusively hand quilt and that is because I love the process. I've done several queen and even king and don't really find the size particularly daunting. I'm currently working on an over-sized twin that is probably close to a queen. I do use W&N batting because it gives me the option of not needing to quilt particularly densely if I don't want to, although I have done very dense hand quilting on large quilts as well. That said, I also use a hoop and not a frame. Don't think I could do it on a frame because of the single position I would need to be in for long periods of time. I can scritch around and change my position constantly by using a hoop - or not - and my body doesn't get as stressed or fatigued. But as others have said, this is a decision that you and your DH must reach together. IMO with hand or machine quilting one is not better than the other they are just different. Either can be beautiful, and depending on skill levels, either can be horrible. It's a very personal choice. I think whomever mentioned there being some emotional issues for your DH with this quilt hit the nail on the head. I see some long discussions in your future. Good luck!

Jackie Spencer

Both are beautiful. I would never attempt to hand quilt a quilt that large, especially a Mariners Compass. If it is machine quilted, he could be using it in a few weeks, if quilted by hand, well? Do you work outside the home, have a busy schedule?

AshleyR

For your survey: I am a hand-quilter. I am trying to machine-quilt, but I'm not nearly as good at it. I've never sent out to the LA and don't plan to until I can't quilt anymore.

For my "two cents": Maybe you could do both. I think a mariner's compass would look best as a S-I-D and that would be so much easier to do on the machine. But maybe you can add some hand-quilting in the border or find somewhere that can be benefitted with some hand stitches.

Good luck!

feline fanatic

I hand quilt and handguide LA quilt (not computer guided). I love both. One is not better than the other. Both have their merits. When well done and thoughtfully executed, both are beautiful in different ways. Both have the potential to become heirlooms and eventually, I think a hand guided well done machine quilted quilt could be a valuable, sought after antique. It just hasn't happened yet as with antique hand done quilts.

I have no time for people who think one is better, more traditional, more worthy than the other. In the evenings when watching TV I almost always have my hoop and handquilting going on. I have gotten to the point that I don't like to sit idly and watch TV, but much prefer to have a bit of handwork to keep me occupied. I find handquilting to be relaxing and a true labor of love. Labor of love being key. I think maybe your DH is looking at it this way as well.

I am very slow. Takes me over a year for a quilt that size and I have had some take up to 4 years to complete working on them off and on as the mood struck me. I enjoy the process. LAing I can complete a quilt in a weekend but usually custom takes me longer. I can not sit and visit with my DH or watch TV while LAing but I enjoy that process as well and I really like completeing the quilting in days/weeks instead of years. I feel something is missing when I don't have a quilt loaded on the LA frame. So as you can see I love both.

If you don't enjoy handquilting then you have to tell your your DH that. There are many, many quilters out there that only like to piece and don't like the quilting process at all so they send their tops out to be completed. If you do enjoy HQ (you said you had done smaller projects) and it is only the size that intimidates you then I say give it a try. Like the other poster said, how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time. Just as the Chinese philospher Lao Tzu said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Do not let the size intimidate you but only IF you want to take such a journey.

You may get that you look forward to your hour or two of handquilting time a few days a week. When you don't feel like working on it you don't. But really you have to decide and if you decide no, you need to calmly explain to your DH that you don't enjoy it and that it will go from a hobby you look forward to, to a dreaded chore. It won't ever be completed if you feel that way. If he still insists the quilt should be HQ (which strikes me as quite the compliment of your piecing) then send it out to be done by the Amish. You can find many HQers for hire on the net.

In regards to posters who said they wouldn't attempt a MC due to all the seams, then plan your quilting so you don't intersect the seams with quilting. I did mine by quilting various designs in the compass and background. I purposely planned my quilting to intersect as few seams as possible. In places where it was unavoidable, I stab stitched.

Here are pics of mine. This quilt took me a little over a year and a half to complete the quilting. There were periods where I didn't touch it for weeks and periods where I worked on it every single day for weeks. As the mood struck me. I enjoyed the entire process. It was a labor of love for my brother and he told me it meant a TON more to him because it WAS handquilted.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...p-t127559.html

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...n-t161213.html

sewmary

What a thoughtful answer. That seems to be just the right thing to do.

lakekids

For me 'hand' is a dirty 4 letter word. He he! I do all quilting by machine. Ask him if he wants it in this lifetime or as a post-humous tribute. Let him know that you are not prepared to tackle hand-quilting a queen size quilt.

sandrakayw

Wow, what beautiful advice! That is spoken like a true Iowa girl(I'm one, too, from Cedar Rapids). Thank you for your thoughtful answer!

gramarraine

I vote for machine quilting. I love the look of hand quilting and I am pretty good at it but it takes way too long and I would get corpul tunnel syndrome in my hands if I tried to quilt a large quilt.