I'm in total agreement with Lacelady. Practice, practice, practice. I've doodle on paper batching the size of the area I'm working in, I've then traced the designs on the fabric and slowly pushed myself past my initial fear and went for it. Most of the first pieces were also on donated quilts and padded walker pouches, all sporting my first attempts at FMQ. Now I just have fun with stippling, feathers, baby shapes, geometic patterns, etc... I've only been quilting about 6 years and the first 2 I would only tie my projects. Glad I had some strong supporters in my quild and now on this board. I'm a lot more adventureous now.