I'm sure by now that you've had lots of advice and encouragement. I too have only been quilting seriously (?) for about a year. I"m still doing mostly rectangles, half square triangles, and a rare flying guesse. I'm taking a class now doing big 18" blocks for a sampler. I'm also doing a block of the month which I'm not real fond of. The BOM uses much smaller pieces. BUT I'm improving--yeah. I actually finished a crib size quilt today from cutting out to quilting on my new machine. I'm proud of it. My favorite thing to remember is "you can't see it on a galloping horse 10 feet away". I don't intend to enter anything I've made to any compitition so I'm just enjoying what I'm doing. Plus it is keeping me sane during this long winter. Hang in there.