i started quilting in fall of 1986. we'd just moved to pensylvania on hubby new job assignment. my new friend owned a shop in boyertown where i bought all my knitting/crochet supplies & patterns. one day while helping her put away new inventory of books, i ended up just sitting on a box of books reading quilt books. next thing i know we had decided i should enroll in her intro to quilting class. and my world changed. my hubby admired the soft sculpture dolls i made, but pretty much ignored the yarn made stuff. then his engineer eyes/mind fell in love with the quilts i started churning out. so much so that he insisted we start a photographic record of what i made & gave away. i've still never kept any of my large quilts & only a couple of my miniatures. with my new found love of quilting, my friend & i conspired on a 'wish list' of books from her extensive selection of quilt books in her store. list she shared with DDH when he'd come shopping for my special days or just because he wanted to buy something quilt related for me. one of the first books to go on the list was the maggie malone book of 5500 quilt blocks. just drawings ..no patterns. in those days even tho the 'quilt revival' started in 70's was well on, books of patterns were nearly nonexistent. even magazines just gave block pattern templates w/o piecing directions & sugesstions for quilt ideas. different world from today's quick & easy & flip and cut waste. look at the publishing dates when buying quilt books, be aware if possible of the history of modern quilting evolution. the 5500 quilt block book is still my favorite, well thumbed, slightly dog-eared. i have several block books now similar to it, such as brackmans first book of over 4000 quilt blocks. again ..just drawings but w extensive history of each block. also jinney byers golden book of blocks that offers the history of the blocks plus plastic gridded sheets to help simplify the drafting of block to size you want. block & technique books are the only quilt books i buy. i don't buy quilt pattern books, there are so many free patterns on the net, of images of quilts that give me ideas for designing my own. i've only ever made one commercial patter by nancy mahoney from a F& P mag, other than my first class quilts. enjoy your new book. go to web ..search out quilt drafting etc and you'll easily learn the joy of exploring your own creativeness. it's fun & rewarding!