I have only had mine since Feb. At first I wondered if I had made a horrible mistake buying a LA. I bought a Tin Lizzie 18 LS.
I am now doing feathers, and lots of really nice designs. Muscle memory is very important so draw your designs out on paper. Even if you don't draw well, if you draw them on paper over and over again you will automatically remember the direction when you start to stitch. I stitch much better than I can draw it. If I'm doing a new design for the first time I always draw it over and over until I feel that the motion is becomming automatic before I try to stitch it onto a quilt. Practice as often as possible and you will get better then you will fall in love with your machine! You can search for and find lots of designs online. Print them out enlarge them and trace them over and over until you get the motion down then stitch them out. The first thing that I put on my frame was a large piece of inexpensive muslin. I got some crayola markers and drew fake patchwork designs then I quilted them after I had designed the area and drew or traced the design. By the time I was finished with that piece of cloth I felt comfortable enough to do an actual quilt. Looking back it wasn't that good, but my quilting gets better with each quilt I do.
Hope that helped some.