Quiltingboard Forums

Hi Cindy! Welcome to the Quilting Board from Nevada! Glad to have you! This is the right place to learn and grow.

Don't worry about the Gracie Frame for now. If you've only done two quilts, and you're comfortable with free motion quilting already, you are soooooooo. . . . far ahead of most Newbies it's incredible! Just keep on making quilts and keep up your free motion quilting until you have even more experience. There will come a point when you'll be ready to move on to a frame, and when that time comes, find someone who is familiar with it to help you. Advertise here on the forum, or on Craig's list, or perhaps by then you'll know someone who is familiar with working with frames. But just because you HAVE a frame doesn't mean you have to use it. Wait for when you're ready. The fact that you were uncomfortable using it, tells me you weren't yet ready. Get more quilting experience, read up on frames, learn, learn, learn. It will come -- or it won't! Some people never use frames!

I guess my point is, push yourself, but let yourself develop along your own natural path. That's what's working for me. I work along, getting better, and then I find something I absolutely must learn, so I do, and I take a leap in my skills. But you couldn't have forced me to learn that skill 6 months earlier. It had to be something I needed to learn for a project I really wanted to do, if that makes sense.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Welcome Aboard!