I have a friend that pieces the most beautiful quilts and then sends them out to be LA machine quilter. She calles herself a "piecer". I did not start out with a long arm machine. I started by quilting my first quilt (king size) on my domestic - just pinned like crazy and stitched in the ditch. At that moment I was a quilter. I made several quilt tops after that and sent them out to be quilted and I considered myself a quilter. Now I have a HQ-16 and am just learning on it but I consider myself a quilter. There is no quilt police so you don't have to be perfect and everybody had to start somewhere. So I think you should get yourself some spray to baste with and some pins and go to town on those quilt tops. After all, it's just fabric and, so far, just a hobby. Go for it.