Heather, your quilt looks great. Give yourself a big pat on the back for all your hard work. I believe you will do greater things in the future. Hope to see one of quilts hanging in a show someday. Remember to enjoy your work is the greatest thing, so have lots of fun.

Rosemary, thanks for the clarification! I wasn't sure either.

Reetzbobeetz wrote: Oi! this is no mouse... This is a hamster - look no tail! and I am much cuter than any old mouse could be!{!-- ia0 -->CIMG4772.JPG{!-- ia0 -->

PS Heather I love the quilt, & all hand pieced - applause, applause!

Congratulations!! You already know that sewing and quilting is a wonderful addiction!! I can't wait to see the next quilt that you design!

I also want to tell you that your first quilt is WAY BETTER than my first quilt! You Go Girl!!

Thanks, everyone!

Rita, thank you for the kind words! "on to the next one" is a bit of a laugh for myself and my mentor, as I have more projects in my head than I know what to do with! My list of "to be done" is quite long and far ahead of my current skill level, but I'm happily sewing away, nevermind what might be too hard for a beginner. In this case, I've found so far that ignorance really is bliss. If I don't know ahead of time it's meant to be hard, I'm not daunted by it at all. So my next....finish up the diary quilt I'm working on (had asked for help on that one early on) and then/at the same time, most likely one I've designed myself. Crazy to think I'm moving so fast from a simple log cabin to charting my own mosaic, but there it is. Will certainly post along the way!

Margo, thanks!

Betty Ann, thank you! See above, I definitely plan to move forward and keep improving. I wrote on my blog today how thrilled I was that my top/middle/bottom measurements when I was measuring for my border had less than a half-inch variance between them, each time I added a border. And then wrote that maybe one day I'll be at a place where an eight-inch variance bothers me, but not yet! So, yes, I'm sure I'll keep seeing growth and improvement. Also I just got a machine from my dad for christmas, so that's next up -- learn to use a machine and watch the projects just whiz by! Or so I hope. My project list is quite long, I just hope my skills improve quick enough for me to get to some of them.

thanks again, all, for the encouragement! I'm almost totally self taught with one great mentor who I email for help as needed, and this forum, so your encouragement means a lot! Thank you so very much!

Wonderful, Heather!! Completion is a wonderful feeling, and your quilt is lovely!! I'm looking forward to seeing lots more quilts from you! Thank you for sharing! Robin

Heather -

What a wonderful quilt! Congratulations!! It always feels so great to finish something!

Nancy

Good for you! It looks wonderful!!

Congrats Heather, The greatest two words in your post are "for now". They mean you plan to move forward and improve your skills. You will enjoy this quilting community with all it's knowledge and willingness to help. Keep that first quilt around to look back on in a few years. You will see growth with each quilt you make. I still do after over twenty years. Betty Ann in warm and sunny Florida

Oh drat! The mouse beat me to it! Congratulations on completing your first quilt - it's a great feeling isn't it. Going to have a look now. Rita.....Just had a look Heather and it's really great. Well done. Now on to the next one!

WOO-HOO

Thoroughly delighted to hear about your achievements! just off to admire your quilt....zoom...

I just posted it up to the quilt gallery, here's a link to it --

[url]see-quilts/quilt-gallery/[/url]

I bought the pattern about 18 months ago, Mosaic Star by Debbie (forgot her last name and can't find the cover sheet now...) from Painted Pony 'n Quilts (http://www.ppnq.com). The original pattern is for a 4 color-way brights on a black background; Debbie helped me adapt it to red/white/blue. I worked on it for a while, set it aside, worked on some other stuff, decided to finish it and done it now is!

The piecing is all by hand, and my new stepmom Kim did the majority of the quilting on her long arm style machine (domestic machine mounted on a movable arm thing over a frame); I did about 2/3rds of one row before deciding it was a bit over my head for now, jumping from never using a machine in my life right to driving a long-arm following a pantograph....too much for me! Many thanks to Kim for quilting it for me.

I'm thrilled with the results and happy to show it off here Many more projects in the works/waiting to be started....this was a fantastic confidence booster! And I have a machine now (an old Bernina 1020 but works great) that I'm learning to use.

Just had to share...
-Heather