Where To Begin, With Quilting...??

This was the first quilting project I made, for my daughter, who is now 18. I still have her baby quilt, and when I look at it now, compared to the quilts I can produce now, I giggle, there are a LOT of things that I didnt do quite 'right', but it is my favorite one because of the pride it gave me to do it. The point to my story is, it doesnt matter if you do it exactly like the quilt books say, do what you think will work, get some old shirts or rags, make a couple of blocks to get the hang of what you want to do and go to it!! Stick to something simple, squares or rectangles, cut them out, and lay them out on the floor til the pattern looks good, then start sewing. I did my first probably 15 quilts completely by hand. There are tons of websites to show you how to quilt or tie it, as well as doing the binding. Just dont get all hung up on rules and 'how you're supposed to', have fun, the name of the game is to make a functional blanket that stays in one piece, if you accomplish that, YOU DID IT!!!