First few days (or months) learning to quilt

I know I mentioned yesterday S.B., my now dear friend who is teaching me quilting, didn't seem as eager to teach as I was to learn.  That is probably not completely true.   I think she was a bit surprised by me going out and buying a machine the first day we talk about her teaching me.  S.B. is very upbeat and enthusiastic about nearly everything and especially quilting.
The first day I started I packed up everything I had and headed to her apartment.  I get to her place and notice I forgot my electrical plug for the sewing machine.  S.B. was great and just let me use her machine, so if she had any plans to work on anything of her own well it wasn't going to happen on this day.  She started me on the nine patches using strip piecing technique.  This is now something I am quite comfortable with but that certainly took quite a while.  I had no idea how to sew a 1/4 inch seam allowance, how to cut fabric with a rotary cutter or even how to fill a bobbin.  These first few months would have probably drove nearly everyone crazy but not S.B.  She is quite amazing, at the time she is trying to make a quilt for the Hoffman Challenge and teach a complete beginner.  The challenge quilt didn't get finished, might have been that I needed so much help.  She does have some fabulous blocks put together, so maybe one day those blocks will find a home.
I got quite good at seam ripping, cutting the correct size and even went out and bought a 1/4 inch presser foot.  Now I can even fill a bobbin and have a hard remembering why I found it so hard at first.  Hopefully this year I will put a border on that first quit top and turn it into a quilt.  While it is certainly not the best quilt around I still love it and all the memories I have from learning so much.  Here's another few of this first quilt top.