You are fine!!! Just research strip quilts on line. There's also a great Yahoo Group site you can join for free called Heartstrings. Wonderful string quilts. Generally they are pieced on a white or muslin backing fabric or phone book pages to stabilize them. There are even QAYG (quilt as you go) instructions so that each square is quilted as you strip piece, so once you join the blocks all your quilting is done! Haven't tried it yet. We all run into the self important Quilt Police sooner or later. Hang in there!