Do you do handwork?

I'll admit, I'm pretty attached to my sewing machine. I never really learned to sew by hand, I learned on a machine and use it for pretty much everything. The one thing I was never 100% happy with, however, was the result I got from doing quilt binding on a machine... no matter how careful I was with my pinning and aligning, it always ended up looking sloppy.

Then, we had a demo done at one of our monthly meetings by fellow member Cinzia on how she does binding on her quilts and it was like someone flipped a switch for me. She combines machine sewing (using it to attach one side of the binding to the front of the quilt) with hand sewing (using it to secure the binding invisibly to the back of the quilt) that gives an impeccable end result and is well within the grasp of even those who are hopeless at hand-sewing, such as myself. Yes, it takes time, but it is the only way I will do a quilt binding now, plus it is a wonderfully relaxing and meditative thing to do at the end of a quilt project.

So in May when the Modern Quilt Guild announced the webinar "Handwork is Fun" by Carolyn Friedlander I knew I wanted to watch it, but as happens life got in the way and I couldn't watch it live. Finally the other day I was able to watch it and I really enjoyed it. She discusses at some length her introduction to and philosophy on handwork and goes over the tools that she recommends. I'll admit, I have not tried any other handwork other than my quilt bindings, but I've come to enjoy the hand binding so much and after listening to her talk on the subject, I think I may just try my hand at something new. Maybe it's time to tackle hexies or some quilting by hand!

What about you... do you enjoy handwork?