I am a self taught quilter. I started small. VERY SMALL. I made a bunch of different pot holders. With one 9" pot holder I learned: piecing, sandwiching, quilting and binding. The WHOLE quilt in 9". Lots of people got pot holders for christmas that year
You can find scads of different and FREE 9" (or larger) block patters on
http://quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html