I've always quilted my own (all large quilts); I have heavy machines. My goal now is to have total control over free motion stitching ... I can do a meander stitch just fine, but I want to do accurate designs (feathers, flowers, whatever) and have them look good. So, I have taken 2 really large pieces of REALLY ugly fabric, put a quilt batting (bought @ half-price) between the 2 uglies, thereby making a practice quilt. I would recommend this method ... practice on a large "sandwich" until you are confident that you can do a large pieced quilt or discover that you cannot do it. It would also be a way of deciding your preferred basting method. If you do not already own ugly fabric and feel that it is to your advantage to buy some for practice, get something that has at least straight lines on it (like a plaid?); if you can get both straight & curved lines, better yet .... to serve as sewing guides, saving you the time/effort of marking the practice quilt using templates.