Thank you all again for the nice welcome, I feel right at home here.
As promised in my Introductions post, I'm going to post a picture of our sewing room in the basement where me, my wife, and our daughter now do our sewing. My wife's embroidery machine is in the bottom right corner (the mammoth one) - I think it can make cakes, too, I don't know. :D It's a Brother Innovis 6000D. My machine is in the back right corner there - it's a Brother Innovis NX-650Q. My daughter's machine is that sad looking one on the left - a hand-me-down from my wife that she used when she was a teen. But don't feel too sorry for my daughter - her birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and we're going to surprise her with a new one. :)
The block pattern pic shows what I'm going to use for my first quilting project. It's from the F&P Easy Quilts magazine (Summer 2009 edition) and is by Cherri House and is called "Sweet Melissa". The block pattern is simple, and they are turned in different orientations to each other to make a more complex looking pattern. I'm making the twin size blanket, just like the article shows, so there are 70 (8") blocks (7 x 10 grid).
The fabric pic shows the fabric choices I made for it. The dark green on the bottom will be the dominant color of the two rectangles in each block. The golds, beiges, and browns will be used for the squares. The striped material will be used for the inner border (oriented shortways instead of longways), and the outer border will be the same dark green fabric.
I guess I need to get cutting now!
Eddie