Great response! I also wondered about maybe there might be a sewer that would love to help you at a senior citizens center or assisted living. They love company and they usually love to share their knowledge. Plus....FREE!

Thats the right way to say ::: I am proud of you as well...you go girl....the more you will try to sew on it the more you will be used to ir and you will both get to know each other......I am sure yoy will enjoy it a lot !!! Machines don,t bite......( lol....I know the feeling of being intimidated by a machine....I bought some monsted industrial machine that is free arm ( dh had to made some " arm" actually for it.....and he did lower the velocity of it.....and I am still looking at it while its looking back at me.........and so fa I only made some mats for my dogs with it.....it does make only straigh stitch and has a kind of a strange foot as if walking foot....sew through thick fabric as well...but its old and doesn,t have all the fency functions...) so you see, when you are part of this wonderful group of quilters ...you do get yourself into " advantures " ....... Good luck !!!!

The Amy Gibson BOM on Craftsy (I think it was 2012) was very basic. She gave very good instruction and good printable materials to go along with each lesson.

Well this was really dumb of me! ;)
I was wanting to respond to the post from Cybrarian about the Craftsy BOM for 2013.

Actually this is the post I wanted to add to.:

Amy Gibson's BOM of the year before (2012) for Craftsy was very good. Simple blocks, good instruction.
I think it's time for me to call it a day.:o

Every time I read a post like this I really wish I lived near the person so that I could help them figure things out. My dear friend told me she had a old sewing machine that belonged to her mother and that it's broken but she doesn't know what is wrong with it so I took a look and it is an absolutely beautiful vintage Kenmore. I got it sewing it's in perfect condition even the manual looks brand new. I hope you are able to get things figured out.

I love youtube for learning new things. I've learned new techniques for knitting and crochet, how to make a heater out of toilet paper, lots of DIY stuff, how to take care of my sewing machines, how to use all the various presser feet, and even a little German. There are many quilting tutorials, just be careful. You might end up spending all your free time on youtube instead of sewing :D

good Morning Everyone, just popped on to say hi and thank everyone for all the wonderful info. I have started to watch some of the videos mentioned above. You are right, novicequiltergrandma, I spend a lot of time watching videos and wondering when I will get to actually sew LOL I love sewing, it calms me and relaxes me somehow. But it sure takes a lot of time to get to the machine. LOL All the planning and cutting and pressing etc etc. Some days, I just want to go into my tiny little sewing room and sew all day long. LOL I am in there every weekend. :-) But for now, I am watching the videos and learning as much as I can. This weekend, I have to make my granddaughter a doll blanket out of the flannel scraps from her rag quilt that I am almost done making. LOL And trying to make a pair of curtains out of some frozen fabric for my DIL's friend. Sure do agree with Tim was it? that said you usually just use straight stitching anyway for quilting? But I wanted a machine that would also do zig zag in case I can get the hang of cutting out shapes and zigzagging them onto something for a mug rug for my daughter. For now, just going to take pieces of fabric and practice. :-) but watch, I will have a masterpiece quilt to post on here someday. LOLLOL Have a fantastic day everyone, Rachel

Hi Rachel,
Only semi-serious about straight stitching. The only time I used any fancy stitches is to seal the edges of pieces placed on a CrazyQuilt. That particular quilt is pieced on muslin, one scrap over another and the free edges are blanket or fine zig zagged stitched to make it all stay put (and look really cool). Other than that, the stitching on my Bernina is front to back (or back to front). As you get more comfortable with your machine you will expand and get to know how to use it for other things.
BTW - That Crazy Quilt is five years in making and not even close to being finished. I use all the scraps from my other quilts I have made so it's kind of a history of my quilting career. It goes a lot slower than you think.

tim in san jose