My first quilt I hand pieced it, blanket stiched the pre-printed Santa appliques and hand EMBROIDERED the thing together. I didn't know about quilting.......LOL. Then I got a an idea to do a quilt for my mom and just started to do it only this time machined pieced, hand appliqued and finally quilted together. Then I took a class!!! It made things much simpler and after reading a book on hand quilting by Alex Anderson I hand quilted it together. I have taken other classes and my guild runs mystery bees and new members classes all the time. The new members bee always tries to teach a technique. It's usually fun even if you are not new to quilting.