Hi Mary and welcome.
I am a self taught quilter (although I had garment sewing experience). I taught myself to first piece quilts, and then to quilt them by making 9" square pot holders. That particular year - my office friends got pot holders for Christmas
Because I am self taught, I taught myself a lot of bad habits, and missed a lot of helpful hints.
One of the BEST things I found was a book by Sally Collins called "Mastering Precision Piecing". I bought the book because Sally specializes in small pieces - which is something I am very interested in. I found it to be MOST useful though regardless of the size of block I'm working with.
So ... get a copy of Sally's book (she also has an accompanying DVD), then go to
www.quilterscache.com and pick some 9" blocks to play with.