All great advice! I learned quilting years ago, all by hand. I have been teaching myself the last 2 or 3 years to machine quilt, with the help of books, articles, and tutorials, and the last year or so I joined a group at my lqs. At 1st, I just googled free motion quilting techniques, or free tutorials on fmq, there is a ton of good info on it...one of the best things I ever did was start basting my quilts with 505 basting spray...I only use 505, and it is so much easier than pin or thread basting! Here is a link to one of the best videos I have found, it is actually a series of 4 videos...this is the link to the 1st one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39I5A3iyCtw
Good luck to you,
Kif