After that first quilt, I decided that I neede more practise with getting the seams right, matching points and just general quilting. I wanted to see what I could do - without it being FOR someone!

I found the pink and floral and had been wanting to try 'flying geese'. After seeing posts on the HGTV message board and several quilting videos on the internet I also wanted to make sure that I could do just plain blocks....should be simple enough - right? Well it did go pretty easy, so I also did some 16 patch blocks, combining more fabrics. All seemed to be going well enough.

I took the flying geese blocks to work. Weekends sometimes go very slow and I had time to trim these up and get them ready to go.

Of course I trimmed them to the 'finished' size rather than the unfinished size. grrrrr

Ended up having to trim ALL the other blocks down in order to salvage the project.

This is the block I ended up with. I think it turned out pretty good.

All but one fabric was stash or goodwill fabric

including the batting and what I planned to use for the backing. The batting is Warm and Natural and I'd gotten it for several years ago for a window project that didn't work out.

Once I got all the top put together, I had to sandwich and get it finished.

I headed out to the shop and built this modified quilt frame so that I could try my hand at quilting. I got the recommended needles, thread, and started in.

I quickly realized that hand quilting wasn't going to be my 'thing' at least not for this throw sized quilt, so I began tying it with pearl cotton.

This is it - all finished and ready for use. It ended up about

55 X 75 inches. Not bad for practice and scraps!

My first finished quilt

I've been bitten by the quilting bug. Late last year I got the idea to make a quilt for the new grandbaby that would be born in February. With the help and guidance of my sis, we got it done. The mistakes are all mine - I learned a lot from this first project, but I must say that I only did the top piecing ( where all the mistakes are). My sis took it from there. She improved on the pressing and got it to the quilter. Then she finished it with the binding. Thanks so much Karen.....and writing all this - I realized I never even gave you credit on the label.

And here's the little sweetie and her quilt. Looks like she has room to grow into it....! The print is a Kansas State print where her mommy graduated from college - GO WILDCATS!!