For decades, quilters have either labored for months (or even years), relied on quilting bees, or resorted to tying to produce finished quilts. While these methods are still in use, many quilt lovers are too busy with work, home, and recreational activities to devote the time needed to finish their pieces. Answer~ Long arm machine quilting. Professional machine quilters, using state-of-the-art, high precision machinery, can accomplish in just a few hours the amount of work which took weeks to achieve by hand - with consistently high quality work and at reasonable cost. The quilting I do on my Nolting Pro 24 machine is entirely hand-guided. Sometimes I follow patterns, or use templates. At other times, the stitching is freehand. I strive always to improve my skills and fuel my creativity