When I took a class on the sit down machine by David Taylor they had sandwiches of plain and patterned fabric. To learn meander, he had polka dot fabric we had to maneuver around and I could see improvement after working on that project. Then we did outlining of a large flower print. It was fun and got our hand/eye coordination to improve. You might look for some fabric you could follow to practice to get the "feel" of the machine.