As a vintage/antique machine collector, 26 in the stable, and new to quilting, January of this year, I had the good fortune of a seasoned quilter, my sister, who has completed over 200 quilts in the last 20+ years. I also get advice from the lady who does all of our long arm quilting. I started in January at the invitation to join my sister in a placemat sewing class and as you can guess, it was far from perfect but the bug bit and I really enjoy making various quilting projects. I have been doing wood working for over 50 yrs. and basically see quilting as similar to my woodworking projects. I see something I like, I make a plan(mental), acquire the materials and go at it. I seldom use a printed plan but prefer to proportion things. If it's too fat, thin it, too long, shorten it, too ugly, toss it. Remember beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and every thing I make is to please me. A plan is a plan weather working with wood or cloth. The cloth is my wood. The thread is my nail. It applies to either craft. The most important part in either hobby is accurate measurement. Old Norm(New Yankee Workshop) said it all, "measure twice and cut once", never were truer words spoken and this applies to quilting as well as woodworking. I just delivered my second quilt, a soldiers quilt, to Brite Hope Quilting, for their returning soldiers project. It's a lot of fun and very relaxing provided you don't make it a job like going to work-UCK!!. I am currently about half way through making my granddaughter a murphy bed and have finished the top of a quilt and almost finished the bottom so bed and quilt should come together in about 3 weeks if all goes well. I will take Kylee with the quilt to our quilting lady and let her pick out the pattern and the thread she would like to finish with. She will pick out the border material and I will finish with the binding. The binding will be top stitched and hand stitching on the back with mitered corners. The picture of the soldiers quilt was taken by Ms. Pearl(owner)when I delivered the quilt. Hope you enjoy.
Rodney in Ponchatoula, La.