hi from central ohio. When I first learned to quilt 1st I made a 9 patch pillow-learned basic piecing and quilting, then a 6 patch sampler wall hanging, which was about the same size as a crib quilt, which gave me some experience in different types of pieciing and boarders etc. I you try a couple of smaller items like this you might be able to get a feel for it and that might save you some mistakes in the bigger project. But mistakes will always happen, another quilt lesson. (as was mentioned in an earlier post)