Influenced by Japanese quilters who are in Japan, I am enojoying hand piecing lately :) - I do not think I do hand quilting after a top is done. Machine quilting is getting popular in Japan, but still majority of them enjoy hand piecing. Many of them are interested in machine quilting, and actually I have met at online some taking a machine quilting class, but apparently there are not many instructors accordingly classes. I taught machine quilting by myself. To me, all you need to do to be competent is just practice. An expensice sewing machine is not necessary - when I first started to take a quilting job, my sewing machine was the cheapest Brother from Wal-mart. But, many say they need to take a class even though tuition is expensive. I honestly understand how they feel because I go to college to be taught. If I really, really, really determined to learn all kinds of subjects learned at school by myself, it is possible using books and internet. But, it is HARD to do and very time consuming.
Anyway, I am now a member of the group of "One-pi" which means "Piece one piece every day."
I piece one everyday and take a picture of the piece like these;
and, post it online to let the group leader know that I did the assignment. The leader replys to me saying "OK!" and I continue the next piece.
Since the due (!) is every day, the materials had to be ready to be sewn.
I picked a quilt pattern and fabrics,
cut them into pieces all being ready prior to starting my project.
So, I now do not have to worry about cutting during the semester (a new semester began on 13th!). It looks like a kit :D
It will be a long journey to finish this quilt top, but I am pretty sure that I have a lot of fun :D