This is my first quilt of my quilting "renaissance" ie my first quilt after about a ten year break. It is called "New Beginnings" both because I have started quilting again and because I made it for my nephew and his new wife as a wedding present. The design brief I was given called for lots of dark red and it went like this: Friday - decided to make a quilt for the wedding; chose suitable fabrics from my stash in conjunction with my sister and niece (mother and sister of the groom); Saturday - started designing; Sunday - started cutting; Monday to Thursday - piecing (and buying more fabrics to add in); Friday - took the finished top to my friend Julie's house for help to pin the layers together; Saturday to Monday - quilting (very badly, but this was the first one for many years and no time to practise for more than a few minutes) + sewing on the binding; Tuesday to Friday - flew to Perth for the wedding (oh how I wished I could have handsewn on the plane), sightseeing; Saturday 30th September 2006 - wedding followed by hand stitching the back of the binding with my daughter Tegan assisting, made the label; Sunday morning - up early to finish stitching the binding and sew on the label; Sunday lunchtime - presented the finished quilt at the after wedding barbecue. Very well received. There are many little technical faults, most of which only a quilter would notice, but some of the quilting is very wonky. I had no time to unpick. Oh well, it is meant to be an everyday lap quilt which will take hard wear with two young boys in the house. I will do better next time with the benefit of experience from this one, with more experience on my new Bernina 440QE machine and with more time to complete the next quilt (hopefully).