Don't give up! You can make a very nice quilt using squares and strips. Start out with a fabric you love and then add one or two more. I like using at least three colors or two patterns and one plain color. I lay them out and decide which ones I want next to each other. I decide how big I want my squares and I cut them out. Large squares makes it go fast. I then make strips half as wide as my squares. I sew a vertical row of squares alternating color and pattern. I then add a strip to that row. You can do it horizontally if you prefer. I keep going until I have almost the size quilt top I want. I then add a border that is a quarter the size of the original strips and then a border that is half the size of the original strip. That makes the math easy. When you add the borders, just square them up with each other and save the mitered corner method for a future quilt top. The whole process is easy and looks good when you are done. You could even just start with a table topper size to get the hang of things. Once you make one of these you will quickly move on to the other types of blocks that are still considered easy like the 4 square and the nine patch, etc. I hope I have made this easy to understand. If you chose this method, I'm sure you will be happy with the results and you will learn many of the basic steps to quilting.
Good Luck with whatever method you try. Please don't let giving up be an option. There are many books in JoAnns that teach basic quilting that are inexpensive. My first was Super Simple Quilts by Alex Anderson & Liz Aneloski. I read it over many times before I started. There are three patterns with three size options for each with supply lists. I paid $9.95 for it. Try
http://www.youtube.com also. :)