Of course, you may ask for patterns. Some can be shared and for others you will be directed to a seller to purchase the pattern.
Different quilters use different techniques. Some do everything by hand, some do everything on the machine and some combine the techniques.
I only use hoops when I hand quilt, which isn't too often. I think some use hoops as they machine quilt, but I don't know about that.j
I piece and quilt on my "home" sewing machine. Mine is a Janome DC 2010 which is a nice machine, but not a fancy (or expensive) machine. I have been machine quilting for about a year and a half and love it. I do use quilters gloves and purchased a walking foot which helps feed the quilt through the machine (because of the thickness) and I also have a darning foot for free motion quilting. I took a lesson from a local quilter on using your sewing machine for quilting and got some great information from here and learned a lot. Then it was just practice time.
Good luck and welcome to the forum.