Sidnee,

There are these really neat things called Thangles. They help with making triangles. I would try them. You can watch the video, it explains everything.

Good luck on your first project.
I hope I didn't discourage you in the last post. I just know it is better to start out a little easier to get the feel of the equipment.

Vicky

P.S. By the way welcome!

Here is a link that might be useful: thangles

Sidnee,

You have about enough fabric to piece a king-sized quilt top. 6 fat quarter bundles of 5 fabrics each is 7.5 yards. But I wouldn't advise a king-sized coverlet as a first project! And you will still need backing fabric and batting.

For a first project I would recommend a rail fence block, a nine-patch block, or just alternating squares. Make a lap/sofa quilt of about 60" x 70" or so. See if you like the process.

Only you can judge your sewing and cutting skills.

Sidnee, those colours sound lovely and will end up being a very attractive quilt, whatever size you decide on. Mary c's advice is good. As I mentioned in a previous post my first quilt was a Rail Fence-simple but pretty. Nine Patch is an excellent choice as well because you would be learning to strip piece, cut and assemble. Have you checked some of those quilting sites. There will be lots of good instructions. Another good cheap tool for quilting, especially if you're not using a pattern is graph paper and coloured pencils. I often work out the quilt on graph paper and colour it so I have an idea of what it would look like.

Vicky, thanks for the welcome, I tend to jump into any project with both feet and hands, my thinking is that if I can do a little, I can do alot more, which is not the case sometimes. ;o)

Mary, by reading your posts to me and to others I find that you and very advanced in quilt making and I appreciate all of your comments and advice, not only to me, but to others.

I guess what I am looking for is how to put the black with the colors, since my ratio to of color to black is 3-1, I could always buy more black. If I do the rail fence would I only use the black once? Same questions for the nine-patch. I was going to do the log cabin pattern, but am having a hard time coming up with a design I like.

Thangles looks pretty cool Vicky, I will be for one of these at the quilting store later today.

Thanks again,

Sidnee

Chickadee, can you provide me a list of some of those websites. I have graph paper and colored pens. ;o)

Thanks for the advice.
Sid

Sidnee, try these sites
sewaquilt.com
quilting.about.com
quilterscache.com--there is a wealth of block patterns here with directions for each one and they are graded as to difficulty level. Also there are samples of quilts using each block.
Good luck.

Sidnee, I have some advice or at least something to keep in mind for future reference.

Unless you bought the fat quarter bundles at a very good sale price, you can ~usually~ do better, price-wise, by purchasing a half yard (=2 fat quarters) or a full yard (=4 fat quarters), etc. Now I will admit that I am a sucker for fat quarters & have quite a stash of them, but sometimes (when I am "thinking") I follow my own advice, LOL, & when the urge to buy a fat quarter hits, I will often get a 1/2 yd instead. But of course sometimes a person really only wants a small amount of a particular color/print, so just buying a fat quarter is all you need or want. Looking at fat quarter bundles gives you a good idea of how to mix or pick out the colors that appeal to you, before you proceed to the bolts of fabric.

Good luck with your project & glad to hear you are going forward with it!