As a newbie, I'm still learning myself, but the best advice I can give is to take pictures of your work in progress. With my dd's quilt, a d9p, it wasn't until after dd and I looked at a picture of it that I had printed out that we saw that the layout wouldn't work. We saw right away which squares needed to be moved. Now, we are both happy with it.

I'll have to try starching my fabric before I cut. My next project is much smaller - a wall hanging - and I'm going to start cutting it tomorrow (I hope). I'll try starching and see what happens.

if you have a local quilt shop nearby or a community college extension program see if there is a beginning quiltmaking class. learning the right way from the start saves lots of time unlearning bad techniques and saves LOTS of time (now how do I know this, you might ask :oops: :oops: :mrgreen: )

Ceil: the book is ABCs of Longarm Quilting by Patricia C. Barry. Ironically I'm not a longarm quilter but that was the best piece of advice I got from her book.

Thanks! I'll see if my library has it.

Ask for help.... Quilters love to give advise...No question is too simple...

I started with a wall hanging. It was made with 9 -12" sqrs. Each one was different. Log cabin, bear paws, flower basket, etc. I machine pieced them and hand quilted each sqr. I think it was a fun way to start.

Remember to have fun making your quilt. Don't compare your work with others and don't bet yourself up if you make a mistake.

Read your instructions until you understand what you must do BEFORE cutting out your fabric. Take as many workshops you can to learn the right way to do a quilt then after understanding the process, do it your way.

Haha - thats what I was thinking (and I was also going to say I used to live in nfld!)

Use the 'Search' function on this board. You'll get a variety of answers on the same subject [no cookie cutters here!], but will be able to find the way that works best for you.

YouTube. See it done.