Introducing myself/novice quilter

Thank you all for the welcome and for the tips. I will definately be
using the suggestion about a small practice piece. I have some 8" and
12" pieced squares that were in a bunch of material that someone gave
me. There aren't enough of some of them to do a whole project with, and
the designs are a bit beyond my abilities at this point to add to them,
so I think they'd be perfect for this.

I've been doing a lot of piecing squares together lately. I have
periods of time with nothing to do at my job, so I've been bringing
squares to work so I have something to pass the time. I'll have to get
some pictures taken so I can get some opinions on how I'm doing. My
stitches aren't the greatest right now, but that just means I need to
do more quilting so I can get better, right?

To my fellow New Yorkers, I live in the Capitol region, near Albany.

As far as chocolate is concerned...in my opinion there are still just 4
basic food groups: chocolate cake, chocolate candy, chocolate ice cream
and chocolate cookies! Yummy!

Mary Anna

Hi Mary Anna....
You wouldn't happen to be a car dealer in your spare time would you???? DS
(son) just moved to Albany a couple months ago for grad school and since
then his car has become terminal. Darn darn darn. It's a pain in the tush
to find wheels for a kid so far away. (I'm in Iowa.)
I hope you found some good information here in our little group. There is
someone who is an expert on almost any topic you can bring up! It's a great
bunch of women and men!
I love your food groups....
KJ

"Mary Anna" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thank you all for the welcome and for the tips. I will definately be
using the suggestion about a small practice piece. I have some 8" and
12" pieced squares that were in a bunch of material that someone gave
me. There aren't enough of some of them to do a whole project with, and
the designs are a bit beyond my abilities at this point to add to them,
so I think they'd be perfect for this.

I've been doing a lot of piecing squares together lately. I have
periods of time with nothing to do at my job, so I've been bringing
squares to work so I have something to pass the time. I'll have to get
some pictures taken so I can get some opinions on how I'm doing. My
stitches aren't the greatest right now, but that just means I need to
do more quilting so I can get better, right?

To my fellow New Yorkers, I live in the Capitol region, near Albany.

As far as chocolate is concerned...in my opinion there are still just 4
basic food groups: chocolate cake, chocolate candy, chocolate ice cream
and chocolate cookies! Yummy!

Mary Anna

Sorry, no, I'm not a car dealer, lol! Actually, I'm a phlebotomist.

I wish you luck in the car hunt for your son, though. I know what it's
like to be without one, no fun at all.

Well, if he ever has any extra blood to withdraw....I'll give you a call!
Heheheheh.
KJ

"Mary Anna" wrote in message
ps.com...
Sorry, no, I'm not a car dealer, lol! Actually, I'm a phlebotomist.

I wish you luck in the car hunt for your son, though. I know what it's
like to be without one, no fun at all.

Hello Mary Anna,

Welcome to the group! Thanks for dropping in. Pull up a chair and stay
awhile. :-)

As for handquilting, compared to some of the ladies here, I'm a novice too.
I've done one full-sized quilt and am working on a wall-hanging. However,
I'm VERY slow. The wallhanging gets worked on in the winter only, and not
full time by any means. Anyway, many quilters put their quilts in a frame
of some kind to do handquilting. I find the frame cumbersome. Also,
because a frame holds a quilt fairly taut--which is what it's supposed to
do--it makes the quilting tougher to do. Therefore, I don't use any frame
at all. If I have the piece securely sandwiched, I just work with it in my
lap. You can experiment and decide which works best for you.
--
Michelle in NV
http://community.webshots.com/user/desert_quilter

"Mary Anna" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi everyone,

My name is Mary Anna and I live in upstate New York. I'm a novice to
quilting. I've been (very) slowly teaching myself over the past several
years with the help of books and lately the internet. I did a few doll
sized quilts with my sewing machine, which I tied off as opposed to
actually quilting them; I wasn't brave enough to attempt that when I
made them. Sorry, no pictures. I made them in my pre-digital
camera/computer days and they have since been given away and are long
gone. They didn't come out all that well, but I liked the process. I've
recently been more active at trying to learn more.

I''ve been sewing together squares, both by machine and by hand, to get
the feel for what I like. I'm finding that I like both equally well, so
I'll probably end up doing both. I haven't actually finished any quilts
yet, other than the doll sized ones, but I do have one small child
sized patchwork quilt top done. I'm still trying to work up the nerve
to finsh it. I don't want to just tie it off, but the quilting part of
it is still a little intimidating to me and I haven't gotten as far as
attempting that on anything yet. I am planning on hand quilting it and
any pointers are very welcome, lol!

I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone!

Mary Anna