Hello from Louisiana. You will enjoy this forum. So much information and beautiful quilts shown.

Welcome from Texas. USA. Would love to come to Scotland & find where my people came from & what clan. Lovely country.

Hello & Welcome. I'm new here also. I lurked for over a year & this does seem like a wonderful group of people. I think you will just love quilting. Hand piecing is how I started in '97.

Welcome from Minnesota! I had the fortune of going on a choir tour to the British Isles, and can't wait to go back!

We are trying to get our house sold & we will be coming to No.Branch,MN Sure wish it would hurry. Our son & daughter-in-law live there.

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Rather late for me to say Welcome, but you are certainly joining a great group of quilters. I am also fairly new and found this group via another link. This group is so helpful I just had to join. Do hope you get your machine soon. To begin, just look for a simple machine that has enough power to do quilting, if you plan to machine quilt. Nothing fancy required. You can always upgrade later. There are always people who no longer sew and are willing to sell their machines very reasonably. Good luck with your machine and do post your work so we can all enjoy. Advise that was given me was to not take your work too critically. There are many "sins" you can cover up with quilting. My first major hurdle was trying to get over doing something "perfectlly". The next was fabric selections. Now I am amazed at how some unusual fabrics can blend so easily. Trust your instincts and if you like it, use it.
Happy quilting from another newbie in North Carolina, USA.

Welcome from Colorado.

Welcome from N. California! We're so glad you joined and look forward to see what you are working on! Congratulations on the sewing machine to borrow.

As for washing your quilt, I would guess it depends on how close your stitches are, but my Mom hand pieced and quilted several "baby" quilts, and they have been washed many time. I have not heard of any problems so far. . .

Thanks for the advice, annieshane and Celeste! I have my friend's machine up and running now and it's great - I definitely owe them one for lending me it!

I'm not sure if it would manage quilting (it possibly could, as long as it goes very slow), but it's doing great for piecing. I think I want to try hand quilting to start with in any case.

I've tried to keep my hand piecing stitches at around 1/8" at the most in length, and have been taking a backstitch every inch or so to try and keep the seam strong. It sounds like it should be ok to wash though - I don't really want to wash quilts in the bath, if at all possible. I think I'll just need to try it in the machine on gentle and hope that everything goes well (and repair anything that doesn't!) :)

Thanks again for all the warm welcomes!