As a small child in the 70's I can remember playing underneath a quilt in a suspended frame hanging in my Great-Grandmother's living room and playing in my Mom's bedroom where she machine sewed clothes for us, she is really good can just look at someone and make a newspaper pattern. And she does beautiful embroidery work. And I can remember her repairing an old hexagon quilt that was on her bed and a bit scrappy. We did not have a lot of money so she would make us Barbie Doll clothes. I learned how to use scissors by cutting out paper patterns my Mom drew by hand and then would pin the paper patterns on fabric and cut out the fabric that way - I have no idea what became of all that fabric I cut as a small child. My Mom has a younger sister, my Aunt Edie, who is very craftsy - she can tat, quilt, sew clothes, embroidery, crochet, a little knitting, and lots of craft projects, she loves to try new stuff. Sometimes I would stay at her house as a child and she taught me in 4 hours 1 night how to crochet when I was 9 and I spent the following 2 or 3 days at her house crocheting. Then in high school my mom finished detailed embroidery blocks of nursery rhymes, I believe it ended up being a full-size quilt for my older sister, She gave the blocks to my Aunt Edie who cut stripping and borders and made them in to a quilt top. She taught me how to quilt by hand when she quilted my sister's quilt on a suspended frame - that was in the early 90's. I took one home ec class in high school, I learned how to thread a sewing machine in that class and that's about it. Then in college I took a board drafting class and a drawing class - both of which I really enjoyed. Then went to work in design fields in manufacturing and for engineering consulting companies. After I got married I wanted to do like my Great-Grandmothers, Grandmas, and Aunts and make a quilt. After being married for a little while, I remember going shopping with my mom for fabric for my first quilt, a queen-size pinwheel quilt, I wanted to make a quilt I could use on mine and my husband's bed. I forget where I got the pinwheel pattern from, but I made pattern templates for it and then proceeded to cut out all the pieces for the quilt at one time. Luckily I was at least consistent in how I cut out the pieces, because I cut out ALL the pinwheels backwards. It took me over half a decade to completely hand-sew my first quilt and after retiring in 2006 I had more time at home and was able to complete this backwards pinwheel queen-size quilt. My parents bought me my first sewing machine a Singer 5050 for Christmas in 2004. Then of course came baby quilts that were gifts to friends and family and 2 queen-size quilts for family. And after crocheting for 20-something years I started designing and writing my own crochet patterns that will be passed down in the family. So my quilting and crocheting are hobbies to me, and most projects are gifts for family and friends, but what I love most about these hobbies are their design aspects, and getting to continually learn new things and getting to connect with past family members who also did these things. I do most of my quilting by hand, because it relaxes me to rock a needle and I like the fullfillment of having a tangible project come together completed. And I love to see the reaction's of family and friends when they get the gifts I make, it gives me a great deal of joy. Best to you, Sandra This post was edited by quiltingfox on Sun, Jun 30, 13 at 17:50

I must be developing calluses on the tips of the fingers on my underneath hand, or else I am pricking my fingertips less. But I feel I need to use a nail file to scrub off all the tiny pieces of skin that stick out and get dry and latch on to everything fuzzy. I have not been able to get to the drugstore to get some of that white tape. We have lots of tape in our medicine cabinet, just not that kind. I think I know what ya mean, empress, about the different thimbles, different tools at different times. I notice that I use my fingers differently when I change equipment. And using the same muscles in different ways means that you are less likely to develop a strain from repeating the same motion over and over. So all of a sudden I realize that I don't want one perfect solution. I want to be able to quilt comfortably and satisfactorily no matter what I use or don't use. Thanks for all the input. And keep it coming, if you have any other ideas. I and others on this forum will benefit from your experience. Now, to go see if I can find Marti's post about the spoon she uses....

Maet, you will want to wait until the quilt is finished to wash it. I may be reading it wrong but it sounds like you're talking about fusing the squares then washing them before sewing. I don't know what type of interfacing you're using, but the knit kind is very soft even after fusing. I don't know about cleaning the cutting mat - I can't recall ever needing to clean mine except for wiping off the fuzzies stuck in the little cuts. Donna

Hi, Lekhouse! Welcome to quilting! If you are tying your quilt through all the layers there is no need to also quilt it. And if your foundations aren’t going to be removed, you don’t need batting if you want a light summer-weight cover. Donna