Advice to newbies.... Be brave. The quilting bug bit when I turned nineteen. After a few tries, things weren't going great. There was an ad in the paper for a quilting frame and I called. The lady was sooooo nice. She said she had published a book on quilting. She laughed when I said it took years to get good. Anyway, that was such wonderful encouragement that I got going again. Thirty eight years and I've never stopped.