Way, way better than my first pieced quilt - yours at least is finished and really is pretty. I too, was flying blind and didn't know anything about quilting but charged full speed ahead. Was in Branson, MO, at the neatest old-timey store and fell in love with a kit - dresden plate in solid soft greens and pinks along with a fabric having beautiful dusty pink and deeper roses on a white background. So I bought it, and started working on it when I got back to AZ. I wanted to make it larger so went to WalMart and picked up some fabric in colors that went with the kit to enlarge the blocks, for more pinks so I could applique hearts on it, and for borders and backing. However, I soon learned that you should not mix polyester cottons and 100% cottons in the same quilt as the cotton will most likely shrink and the polyester won't. Of course I didn't learn that little tidbit until partway through trying to hand quilt with that fabric (a little difficult to do) and on a larger than queen size quilt. Talk about a struggle! I set it aside and have not done anything else with it and that's been at least 7-8 years ago. Still don't know what to do about it, but I still really like the colors in the quilt.