Grammy1231, I totally understand what you are saying!!!! In every practice piece I have made, there are a gazillion mistakes and it always looks awful to me. I recently tried Free Motion Machine Embroidery, also known as thread painting. I fell in love and has boosted my confidence ratio sky high. I recommend trying it. It is similiar, yet different from FMQ yet you are learning how to control all aspects of your thread, material...plus your hand coordination, your machine speed. Check out Patsy Thompson, Terry White and Nancy Prince. Plus there are a lot of other videos on You tube on FMmachine Embroidery. I hope this helps.