I am self taught. I saw a quilt in a magazine I liked and decided I could do that. I had no directions or idea but bought material and drew out a mapel leaf for a pattern. cut the leaves out and on an old kennmore zigzaged them onto orange squares (was a old ORANGE, UGLY UGLY Orange sheet cut into squares)embroidered the stems and viens in the leaves. Never put together the squares into a quilt though. Still in a box somewhere. Next was a HiHi (daughter's name for Holly Hobby) type with a little girl with her dog, ballons, doing all sorts of things which I put together the same way. Still have that one and well used by daughter. From there I worked into piecing. In my daughters senior year of high school we made a patchwork using mainly denim skirts and jeans and a few jackets and a couple of favourite blouses and skirts. weighs a ton but was a fun project that has many memories from her childhood. I would probably benifit from a class or two!