Dear Dan
Welcome to the wonderful world of quilting... you will find yourself not alone quilters are great for being very helpful.
There are a lot of men who enjoy quilting... we had a nasa engineer who joined our guild in Huntsville, Al... he has 4 kids and loved to quilt... he would volunteer to travel for work so he could shop at a particular store!!!
here is a web site where 3 men own and operate a quilt store...
http://www.3dudesquilting.com/
they have free patterns on their web site....
Missouri star quilt company has a lot of kits and free patterns with videos.... love her videos...
enjoy the journey ....
Welcome
quiltinmama