In Dec last year I started working my way through Harriet Hargrave's Quilter's Academy book. I am now about to start on my 13th quilt top.
Yep, 13 quilt tops in 2 months - all from one book. I'm just about to do the last project in the book - a quilt top with no pattern and no instructions!
After that, I need to put on borders and then make all those tops into quilts. I have 3 months to do this before book 2 comes out and I progess onto more advanced designs.
So, self taught from a book. I've blogged my progress with this which you can read here
http://patchnblock.blogspot.com
I'm also learning to applique and quilt from Harriet's other books. Joining a guild is helpful too.