My first blocks

My good friend, the quilting guru, teaches a quilting class to several ladies in our neighborhood. Very generous of her! The very first class she taught was a real eye opener for me! Although I have a B.S. in Clothing and Textiles, and have done a LOT of sewing, I had no quilt experience. She was the first to introduce me to 1/4 inch seams, blocks, and real quilting. She designed a project for us with several different techniques so we could try different things, and have something nice to show for it! This is a picture of our first project.

I learned so much with this first project. I still don't know the names of everything, but we did a pineapple block, churn dash, and applique among others. I ended up doing two of everything, the first as a learning experiment, and the second for my "real" block. I put together two finished wall hangings, hand quilted one for myself, and then started playing with FMQ and gave the other to my mother. Moms love everything their kids do, so although it was far from perfect, she likes it (and her eyes aren't so good, maybe she hasn't noticed all the mistakes and re-dos!). I have been continually learning since then, and am finally brave enough to do some projects on my own, not just waiting to see what we will do next in class. I now do some kind of work on a quilt almost everyday, and I am enjoying myself so much! And I am learning so much from tutorials on the internet. There are so many wonderful people who are willing to share their experience. I am in a Yahoo group for the Janome Horizon sewing machine, and the ladies are so nice to help people who are struggling with their machines, or just learning the ropes, they recommend products, books and websites. I have thrown out questions several times, and it never fails that some nice people will write back with help for me. What a wonderful resource to fall back on when I am stumped!