Hi Ninnie
We live in Preston Co., home of the Buckwheat Festivel in early Sept.
You're right, this is a great place to learn new things and I really enjoy it.

Welcome from WA :D

Kluedesigns posted a great tip recently involving a marble to help you pin bast a quilt, try the search engine.

I found it. What a great idea.

I would think that the best tip I can offer is that visiting with this lovely group is great, but the quilting doesn't get done while you're here. So I would say to use you housecleaning time to do the QB and you will still have time for quilting.

Oh, and I can't wait to try out the marble idea.

I have been "keeping house" for more than 45 years. I've had lots of practice and I never seem to get any better at it, so I do just as you suggested. There is no longer any of that time left.
Someday someone will clean that window so I can see what I'm doing and turn out these lights.

I have a sign in my kitchen that reads: Housework won't kill me, but I'm not taking any chances! :lol:

I just got a new sewing machine and am thinking about making a sample swatch for the different fancy stitches. They look much different in real life than on the paper chart and it would be so much easier to pick the stitch based on a sample.

I do not like to prewash my quilts when I give them as gifts, but occasionally they have been rattling around the house for a while. So I throw the quilt in the dryer with 2 washed bath towels and a dryer sheet. The dampness of the towels helps pull the threads off the quilt and the dryer sheet freshens it up.

How wonderful, a new machine. I'm turnig green with en....well, you know.
I made a chart of the stiches on my machine when it was new, and I did 2 or 3, came back and did a couple more and then the light came on.
I took 2 sheets of graph paper, the 1/4-inch paper, put them together and
started to sew the stiches right on the paper. It gave me the "real" look and I could also see what the scale was.
That paper is old, winkled, like me, and turning yellow, but it really did help a lot.
Good luck with your new machine.

Oh, if you use graph paper, goooooo slooooooow.

Hi, Gail! know you been very busy with cakes and all! good to see you, yes, sometimes, i just let stuff pile, to get some quilty time! :wink:

Hi and Welcome I take my soft cover quilt books to Kinko's They cut off the binding and put 3 ring holes in it I then put the cover in a see through page on the front of a Notebook and then at a glance I can see what book it is and have easy access to scan a template or pattern and it stays open better Happy Quilting!