Janis

Lots of good tips and suggestions here. My advise is to go to Auto Zone and get one of those little telescoping magnets that can fit in a pocket. They are by the check-out at my nearby store and cost $2-3, and are well worth it. They can pick up pins, seam rippers, and even scissors that you might drop.
If you sewed clothes before and have those little pins with plain metal heads, throw them away! You don't use them with quilts, and when they get on the floor are harder to see than the ones with colored heads. And pinning almost everything is easier with the longer pins.

sandpat

You have gotten great advice so far! You go for it and have fun..that is most important!

I guess the other thing that I had to have drilled into my head was about pressing. You will be PRESSING your blocks...not IRONING! Just lift the iron up and put it straight down...no rubbing back and forth...ask me how I know??

patsyo56721

I guess I am the queen of ripping.

Campbell34

Hope you are having fun today with your new quilt, I think I will try to learn how to do the embroidery on my machine today , so much to learn, but we all have the rest of our life to learn stuff, besides we should not get alsheimers, too much to do to forget

quiltmom04

Remember - quilting is supposed to be FUN! As a beginner, you will make mistakes - seams will be off, cuts might slip, but don't let the notion of the quilt having to be perfect get the better of you. FINISHED IS BETTER THAN PERFECT! There are no quilt police!! :lol: ENJOY!

Janis

THANK GOODNESS !!!!!!!! :D :D :D

Tiffany

I've been quilting for 18 years and I still use that darn seam ripper much more often then I would like. I call it reverse sewing. :lol:

I don't need the quilt police - I do that just fine when critiquing my own work. :roll:

wordmama

I agree with bebe's list above. I usually use medium gray thread top and bottom. I really like the Easy Angle ruler for half-square triangles. I also recently bought a gently used copy of Fons and Porter's "Quilter's Complete Guide". It's my favorite reference book.

Good luck with your project. You'll get lots of help from the board members if you have any problems! :)

Quilt Mom

Wow! Lots of good advice! :D

How is progress? I envy you, as my entire weekend was spent away from my sewing machine.

The pattern you chose is a great one to start. Happy sewing! We would love to see pictures of your progress. :wink:

Elisabrat

You will have to keep everyone up on your progress now that we know your working on it! What pattern did you decide on? colors? any troubles yet? I too am excellent at seam ripping. The more you do it the better you get at it! I was told in quilting class that you never rip a seam more than twice or cut a new piece because the integrity of the fabric is compromised and wont hold up as well. I am sewing today just waiting for the hordes to get up out of bed so I dont hear it on how loud I am :)