Welcome to the boards. I wish I could help in some way but my hand skills are not my best attributes! That's the sort of thing friends say when you are really bad.

But I admire your desires and chosen form of expression and wish you the best of luck and enjoyment in real life and on the boards.

I can say that I've worked quite a bit with what I call "Almost Amish"projects and understand what makes them almost and not quite. I can also say I've never made a perfect quilt nor had to include a mistake, plenty of those happen it's how we deal with them that's important. Our skills are always changing even when we always strive to do the best we can, what we can do changes too. I'm dealing with some vision issues and so have to change what/how I do things but I'm going to keep on doing what I love. Keep on doing what you love!

Welcome to the board from Alberta, Canada. I only recently started quilting. My mother is a hand quilter. That is a skill I definitely lack. Like Iceblossom said above, my hand sewing skills are not a strength at all. If it was cross stitch, now that would be a different thing. I figure as long as you're enjoying yourself, that should be what counts most.

Jen, my hoop doesn't have a stand. It's maybe a 16 inch that I just put on my lap.
Sorry to hear about the fire. How awful~

No advice from me, but a warm welcome to the quilting board from Southern Indiana!

Welcome to the board from a fellow hand quilter! I use an oval hoop, no stand, so I can sit back in a comfy chair. Metal thimble, nothing on underneath hand. Small betweens for quilting. I agree with others, practice, practice, practice!! And use an easy batting, you may have to experiment.

I also love to hand quilt - and many years ago I took a class to see if there was a better way than the way I do it. The instructor was quite accomplished and she loved to make the white one piece quilts where the quilting was the entire design. Some day I hope to make one. But my big take away was, she said to keep a practice piece to run a few inches to get your hands warmed up. And for me it still helps getting my stitch rhythm. I do not using cotton batting, since I started with poly batting, going thru cotton was like going thru a brick wall. So I prefer either the poly or wool. Some day I plan to try bamboo but haven't done it yet.

My inspiration was/is Georgia Bonesteel - love her books, her films, and her work. But she once said the most important part was enjoy what you are doing, consistent stitches are important, but no one is going to put "She could quilt 14 stitches to an inch" on your tombstone, so we shouldn't worry about it.

Welcome from Michigan! :)