how to make an American Quilt...gypsy style

well first, you start with tons of scrap and leftover, handed down fabric. Then you have your four year old DD pick out what she likes and put it in one pile....
Then you spend a day randomly cutting out squares to fit your "pattern" and make it up as you go along. Decide half way through that you want a pattern with your material...and start trying to make that work...
then to make it look nice and evenly random, you have to lay out all your squares to get them in order.....

Once you get the top sewn together, baste it to the bottom with huge safety pins....
and hope you have it all smooth and even and that it doesn't bunch up when you sew it together.

so, this is my second quilt. the first i made in high school, and it is still with me. I am working on patching some places on it now. Its like a part of me it has been around so long. I am machine quilting this one for my DD and i have been focused on nothing but it for several days! I have even gotten my DH in on the project because it is too big for me to run through the machine by myself...it's a family project.