Welcome to the board. I would recommend 100% cotton fabric, especially for a new quilter. T-shirt fabric is stretchy and therefore much harder to work with. Muslin (bleached or unbleached) would be a good choice for experimenting. You should be able to piece on your machine, but quilting may be difficult because of the small throat space. People either hate or love that little machine; it may be a matter of quality control that some have problems and others don't. If you haven't used the machine yet it might help to read the reviews on Amazon and Walmart and see what others have learned in terms of setting the machine up and setting the tension.