I'm late to this party, but made my first panel quilt just recently. I thought it would be quick, and I guess it was a little quicker than if I'd pieced the center, but it certainly took longer than expected. This is technically not a quilt because it's just 2 layers. I used spray baste to position the panel on the fleece backing, and then used the quag method to add the borders. Then did a lot of quilting on the embroidery machine, as well as embroidering the words and other designs in the black border (part of the panel). I had trouble keeping that part straight, but for a hasty, just before the holidays effort, I'm not too unhappy. I spent a lot of time on the computer looking for a quote to use, and wound up with one that's not actually about music but about string theory. It was amazing to see that although there are tons of quotes out there about music, most are much too wordy for my space, except for one or two overly familiar quotes. Words could never convey for a deaf person what music is.