My first attempts at quilting were laughable. My blocks didn't anywhere near come close to having corners...much less matching. I saw a pattern for an X-mas tree skirt and I wanted to make it for an elderly friend. I did. I am mostly self taught from books, magazines, now from the Internet and you guys.
After 10 years, I'm still taking classes, including my first beginning quilting class, because I wanted to *see* it done in front of me and be able to ask questions. A big one was how to avoid "v" rotary cuts. And I learned. We're making a baby quilt and my corners may be the best I've ever made. That said, the teacher pins all her block intersections and I won't, for me it's a matter of time versus perfection. I get real pleasure out of having my corners be really close to each other <G>, almost all matching!
My take on it is that I will continue to quilt, continue to learn, to do as well as I can, but not to get overly picky. Not that I'm an overly picky person anyway. But I love quilting, in all it's messy imperfection. I can't paint, draw, sing (tone deaf), play music, etc, so quilting is my art...