Originally Posted by QuiltnLady1

Welcome. A lot of what you choose depends on how much you can invest (and yes, invest is what you will be doing). If there is a JoAnn's near you, get on the mailing list because you can get just about all of the basics on sale.

To make your quilting life easier, you need a cutting mat, 45mm rotary cutter (if you have hand issues you may want a rotary cutter that is not a straight line -- there are different styles on the market that have widely varying prices) and ruler (I would suggest getting a 12" and 24" ruler as a minimum and make sure they have the lines to cut 30, 60 and 45 degree angles). You also need a seam ripper.

I would suggest that you find a pattern that you would like to make (rail fence, log cabin, 4-patch, 9-patch are some easy ones). You can get a look at a lot of different blocks at http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html. The patterns are free, the amount of fabric is listed and the directions are great. Also, you can easily see how hard the pattern is (usually, more pieces = greater difficulty since if you have issues with your 1/4" seam the blocks won't come out correctly).

Now comes the fun part -- fabric. Go to a fabric shop and look -- find out what you line in the way of patterns and colors. With fabric at $10+ a yard at many fabric stores, I would try to buy either sale fabric or thrift store fabric to make your first blocks so you don't feel like you have wasted a lot of money if you mess up a block. To begin with, cut yourself 3 strips that are 1.5" by 5". Sew all the pieces together with 1/4" seams (if the machine does not have the markings, a note card has lines that are 1/4" apart and you can use a stack of sticky notes to mark the line) and when you should have even edges and the width of the piece should be 5" (you should have a perfect square). I would repeat this until you know you can consistently do 1/4" seams. If you need to rip seams, only do it a couple of times because fabric stretches a bit every time you rip a seam and your block will be stretched out of shape.
Most of all -- enjoy....