I am a quilter as well. I do both knitting and quilting. The bad thing is having two stashes to spend money on. I would be really too embarassed to tell you the amount of fabric I have, it is just as lovely as buying skeins of yarn.
The most important thing I learned was to take classes. I can always get by on my own and from trying things from magazines and books but the skills to make your work exceptional and a well made lasting quality pieces is passed on from the teachers who learned through hard knocks. Depends on how seriously you take your work and how you percieve your items finished. We all know people who will say in knitting " oh no one will notice the holes" " I like it I dont care how many mistakes I made", These statements are fine, it is how they work, finishing is different to many people. Those who can steek a fair isle and those whose work is near perfection are people who go the extra step and do care if there is a hole or mistakes. Quilting is exactly the same way. You can put together scraps, or spend hundreds on designer fabrics and use every technique and step along the way. You can sew and make each piece touch the next and work it out somehow or you can have crisp smooth perfected points. You can crazy quilt, paper piece, applique, fuse, free motion, hand stitch, and so on.
I do have to say for the beginner piecing classes are a good start, it prevents learning the hard way why something had to be recut or fudged to make points or get blocks to fit up together. Many people dont learn the “rules” of cutting and pressing and end up thinking 1/8 isnt that far off from a 1/4 inch. There are ways to learn to press fabric that involves steam to stretch it, or why the actually iron movement isnt how you press due to distortion. My first class was a pieceing and thank god, cause i was ironing and not pressing and I ended up with bias cut squares and points not matching. When all the steps were pointed out along the way I was awakened not knowing there were correct techniques. I saved myself money from ruined pieces cut wrong and knowing how to cut correctly. I learned how to calculate what is needed and plan out my quilts. Breaking habits already developed isnt always easy but learning the basics correctly makes a quilt you can be proud of or one you can say well no one will notice that. You can tell a newbie in any class with quilters, they sew over pins, a quilter cringes and cant believe someone would risk their machine doing that. Quilters have quirks believe me.
I have a my sewing room with all my tools, (so many rulers and cutters and mats and so on) and my knitting is my carry project or in front of the television during movie night. My quilting is all machine stitched as I am not a hand stitcher so it is stationery, many quilters do hand work with appilique or quilting, I dont.
A quilt requires tools, patterns or some starting point, magazines and library will do, space to work, sewing machine, batting, backing, threads and well you get the picture. If you can join a group some people may take you on under their wing and let you use their tools to see if you like it before investing. I worked with my neice and we did a quilt for her together, she had the attention span of a gnat and couldnt even pay attention enough to iron or pin things, my sister said glad I didnt invest the money. I also did the same thing with my mother. She ended up raiding my fabric and supplies and swore she was going to get into it, that was 3 years ago and I really want my fabric back dammit. There are people who would sew with you if you asked I am sure. If you were in florida you could come over and sew with me. If I could figure how to post pics I would show you my quilt works. I think some are under Luncheonette blog thread. Good luck.
