Good afternoon one and all!
 

Smitty here!

I have always fancied myself as being crafty. Just inherited a Singer 775 from my mother-in-law, and though that I might like to try my hand at quilting. I believe I will start off small and make some placemats, just to get used to the machine and to learn the tips and tricks to larger pieces.

I have read through several beginner's guides and see so much to take into consideration.

Any veteran tips would be greatly appreciated!

Smitty

:thumbup:
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*** Hi! Y'all from the upstate of South Carolina.
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Welcome. A lot of what you choose depends on how much you can invest (and yes, invest is what you will be doing). If there is a JoAnn's near you, get on the mailing list because you can get just about all of the basics on sale.

To make your quilting life easier, you need a cutting mat, 45mm rotary cutter (if you have hand issues you may want a rotary cutter that is not a straight line -- there are different styles on the market that have widely varying prices) and ruler (I would suggest getting a 12" and 24" ruler as a minimum and make sure they have the lines to cut 30, 60 and 45 degree angles). You also need a seam ripper.

I would suggest that you find a pattern that you would like to make (rail fence, log cabin, 4-patch, 9-patch are some easy ones). You can get a look at a lot of different blocks at http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html. The patterns are free, the amount of fabric is listed and the directions are great. Also, you can easily see how hard the pattern is (usually, more pieces = greater difficulty since if you have issues with your 1/4" seam the blocks won't come out correctly).

Now comes the fun part -- fabric. Go to a fabric shop and look -- find out what you line in the way of patterns and colors. With fabric at $10+ a yard at many fabric stores, I would try to buy either sale fabric or thrift store fabric to make your first blocks so you don't feel like you have wasted a lot of money if you mess up a block. To begin with, cut yourself 3 strips that are 1.5" by 5". Sew all the pieces together with 1/4" seams (if the machine does not have the markings, a note card has lines that are 1/4" apart and you can use a stack of sticky notes to mark the line) and when you should have even edges and the width of the piece should be 5" (you should have a perfect square). I would repeat this until you know you can consistently do 1/4" seams. If you need to rip seams, only do it a couple of times because fabric stretches a bit every time you rip a seam and your block will be stretched out of shape.

Most of all -- enjoy....

Take a quilting class at a community college if possible. You will receive many ideas there, as well as all the great information from the many quilters on this site. Welcome from the beautiful mountains of western NC.

Hi Smithy welcome from NE Ohio.

Welcome & howdy from Texas. You will find lot of help from board members here. There are tons of online tutorials that are just a click away. I love tutorials from Jenny Doan from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. You can sign up on her site & you will be emailed tutorials as they become available. Here are links to a lot of her tutorials:

http://shops.missouriquiltco.com/blo...erns-by-issue/

Welcome from western NY and happy quilting :)

In addition to the basics, please wear a safety glove on your non-cutting hand. Cuts from rotary blades do some SERIOUS damage to skin. I use a brand called the NoCry glove which fits snugly and has cut-resistant fibers (actually sold as a pair for about $10 on Amazon).

Good lighting is very important.

Skip the specialty rulers until you find out if quilting is for you.

One ruler I love for cutting strips is called the June Tailor Shape Cut. Naturally it does more than strips, but you line it up and it has slats every 1/2" that you can put the rotary cutter into and make several strips at once. I use that one, and my 6x24" ruler more than any of the others.

Welcome from Michigan!:)