Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice.

I’m pretty sure no one in my family reads my blog—my mother asked me recently what a ‘blog’ was—so I can safely talk about this here. Besides, even if my cousin does read my blog, this new Mama is much too busy being a new Mama to see what I’m working on.
There have been a lot of little boys added to the family in the past five or so years. But in this last year we’ve had two new little girls join us. The first was born in September and I’m almost finished with hand quilting a pretty little pink quilt for her. And just last week my other cousin had a baby girl. So I dug out all my cute pink fabrics and a gray cotton and started brain storming. I’m thinking it’ll be similar to Parker’s quilt.
I’m a huge fan of hand quilting. I love how it looks softer than machine and the way it puckers perfectly. And every stitch is sign of dedication and love. But it takes ages so for the first time, I’m seriously considering machine quilting this one. It sure would be a lot quicker. But I have very little and poor experience machine quilting. So, I’m stuck. Does anyone have any suggestions, preferences, advice, or opinions?
I have to admit I’m losing a little interest in making things for my shop. I miss how I started—making things for friends and family, and myself. I don’t do that that much anymore. And now that my skills and ideas have gotten so much better I can offer them much, much nicer items. And I wish I had more time and energy for gift making because even though there is no sign of babies in my near future, there are perfect little recipients of all these cute things I’ve been dreaming up and finding (like this, or this, or this).