It took me a good six months before I felt like my FMQ skills were good enough to use on anything I wanted to really keep or gift. Now that's not saying I spent six months doing nothing but FMQ; I work fulltime and have other hobbies too... I set up a BUNCH (several dozens) of practice sandwiches and tried out all sorts of stuff. First I had to learn to control the speed of my machine really well (it has a kind of touchy foot pedal), then I had to figure out how to control the fabric and move it where I wanted it to go, but most of all I had to practice a lot of doodling with pencil and paper to get better at drawing smooth curves and designs! I couldn't even draw/sew a heart design when I started, but now, 2 ½ years later, I'm pretty happy with what I can do. I'm still working on expanding my skills, adding new kinds of designs all the time, but I'm quilting on "keeper" projects without worrying too much about whether I'll ruin it.