Thank you all for your advice and helpful tips, this is truly a great site with people like you to give a helping hand! I think I will start with gimp and take the tutorials to get my feet wet then move on from there. Thanks Messman, if I have any questions I will be sure to shoot you all a question, and maybe I will ask to send a picture to you so I can compare my pattern to yours... I think that would help out alot!
Dan.