Welcome to the wonderful world of quilting from Virginia. I am a hand quilter. I do some machine piecing and quilting, but I prefer hand work. For a beginner, I highly recommend these books. (By the way I have them and refer to them often.) First, for piecing, Harriet Hargrave's "Quilting Academy" books. She has Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior books. She starts with the basics in her Freshman book with squaring the fabric, cutting it, and simple piecing. Each books progresses with more difficult projects. They are easy to understand and follow. Since you don't have a machine, you might be interested in hand piecing. Jinny Beyer has an excellent book "Quiltmaking By Hand." For hand quilting, I learned from Roxanne McElroy's "That Perfect Stitch" book. She passed away just before her book was published, but her daughter Dierdra McElroy has continued in her mother's footsteps and has a DVD also called "That Perfect Stitch." As far as hand quilting, my suggestions are after deciding how you want to learn (class, book, or DVD), invest in a good hoop or frame and thimble. The hoop shouldn't be any larger than the measurement from your elbow to the knuckles on your hand. Anything larger, there will be space in the hoop that you can't reach and I think would be cumbersome to handle. I have a 14 inch Jasmine hoop that I've used for 15+ years and it's still in excellent condition. However, I've tried to find this company on line recently with no luck. I know it was a family owned business and the lady who designed the hoops and frames had been ill. I'm strongly suspecting that it's no longer in business. The pro side of a lap hoop is that I can sit in my comfortable chair and quilt. The down side is that with all that quilt in you lap you can get very warm. I also have a 14 inch Grace floor hoop as well as a Grace Z44 floor frame. I use the floor hoop a lot for small quilts. The floor frame is amazing, but I'm sorry to admit that I never mastered the art of quilting away from myself with my thumb. So, I use the frame for basting. The next thing is a good thimble. Just try one on until you find one that fits comfortable. Just make sure it has deep dimples to hold the needle. I alternate using Roxanne's thimble, and Thimblelady. Because I have an allergy to metals I need a silver thimble, but if allergies are not a problem for you there are many others on the market to choose from. I learned to quilt with the pad of my finger rather than the end of my finger. It creates less stress on my finger. Also, check in with Craftsy. I believe that site has some online quilting classes. You can pay for the class, download it and learn at your own pace. I believe I just saw an ad for heirloom hand quilting class for $39.99. I don't know the lady who teaches. I haven't taken any classes from this site, but I have friends who have and they have been extremely satisfied. Happy quilting!