Personally, I would say go for it, start simple. When I made my son's Triple Irish Chain quilt, I just quilted diagonal lines across the squares, much easier than hand quilting my daughter's full size quilt with hearts, the first and last quilt I ever hand quilted as my carpal tunnel won out. I am or was a self-taught quilter, hand quilting one stitch at a time, but since I was self-taught, nobody told me about any "rules", so I didn't know I was breaking dozens of them. After my son's quilt I made a king size quilt for our bed with pieced basket blocks, including a pieced handle. I made a medallion style quilt with 4 quilts in the center, set on point, then plain blue blocks around them where I quilted feathered wreaths (see, I told you I didn't know the rules) and all done with black sashing. Did I make mistakes, I sure did, but by the time I finished that quilt, I knew a whole lot more about machine quilting, and I've never looked back; but now I balk at FMQ, but I'm getting there - see you're not the only one with an irrational hesitation. I know I can do it, I did great when I took a long arm quilting class, but one day soon.