I feel like I have a lot of support on this one- thank you all.
Someone else might learn from my mistakes, so here goes:
Hoop error: I sandwiched the quilt and then pulled it to get it straight. Because I had not basted enough, I stretched the top more than the other layers, meaning I was building up to an overspill at the edges, (and also working against myself as I want a "cushiony" look). Had fun re-basting to re-distribute what could be lots of puckers! Luckily, one of my fabrics is a cute abstract floral with lots of lines on it, and if I outline many of these, I can use up the puckers (I hope!)
Stitch obsession: definitely letting my idea of the perfect lines of stitches get in the way of learning to do the rocker stitch. (I wish I had more real projects to look at and examine the stitches on- I have a store bought whole cloth quilt and the large(ish) quilting stitches on it really bother me, but I suppose I need to GET OVER IT!)
Batting- definitely not using that polyester stuff again- bits of it keep leaking and leaving me with filaments. Urgh. If I wanted to be cheap, I should have used an old towel as my batting.
Thimbles- lots of issues- feeling the needle coming though but then loosing it as I rock- surely not normal to have to visually inspect the back every stitch.
Obsessive, moi?!!!
Anyhow, I am having fun, and getting better- thank you all again.