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. 

Happy New Year.

Hi everyone.  I'm hoping to be able to blog this year.  After quite a few changes around the house, last year,  quilting slowed down.  Now I'm really hoping to pick it back up.
I started quilting about 3 years ago.  A now really good friend started working with me.  I wanted to start a new craft and she was a quilter.  One day I asked her if she would be willing to teach me, she said yes, and that night I went out a bought a sewing machine, iron and ironing board ;)  I went to work the next day and told her I got a sewing machine, she looked at me like I was crazy.  I'm not sure she was completely as eager to teach as I was to learn.  She told me to go to a local quilt store and get a set of fat quarters, not to worry if I think they don't match.  That night, of course I was at the store.  Looking around I was quite overwhelmed.  I made my way back to black and white section and bought a set.  Of course since the set was only black and white I had no worries if it matched.

So that is the first attempt at a quilt.  Lots of problems along the way but overall a wonderful start to a new craft.  Also the lady teaching me quilt has a book Dreaming in Color