Hi. I understand the feeling of being overwhelmed. I have a ton of books and patterns and just want to be able to sit down and do them! However it's daunting. It's seems a violation somehow to cut the material and not be sure I know exactly what I'm doing. I took several free classes through our senior's college on different aspects of quilting. We covered using the rotary cutter, cutting techniques for different shapes etc. It was what I had read but made more sense in the context of a class. One session we tried out different quilting methods and I learned I need a lot more practice in free motion quilting before I try that on something I've worked so hard on.
I also joined the Quilter's Guild in our town. There are many talented people who are wonderful in giving help to us newbies. Right now I have my first quilt on the sewing machine and am doing stitch in a ditch outline quilting. I know what I need to do in order to put the binding on and if I get into trouble I can always call one of my new friends.
Good luck.
Katherine