Do a few practice pieces before you jump into making a quilt. I'm always stitching up a quilt block I like, or a nine-patch, or a 16 patch, or a particularly intricate quilt block, something like that. My rule is: they all have to be 8" square. Then I toss them in a box. Someday, I'm going to do something with that box. Until then, it's just my "warm up" pieces, or my "gain my confidence" pieces. It's just put me through the whole process of choosing colors, cutting pieces, stitching them together to make a whole, practicing my scant 1/4 inch seam -- everything I'd do for a quilt. It doesn't take much time to do one block, and then I'm all warmed up and ready for more.
Oh, and please just get past using paper for quilting. I use it too. I can do some small things free hand, but if I want them to look really nice, I need the paper. I am not going to mess around with the pounce and chalk, and drawing things on my quilt, when in mere seconds I can slap some paper down and start on beautiful quilting. Easy peasy. It's just another tool for quilters like us. I focus my art on putting my quilt together, because I'm not an artist with the quilting itself, and that's just real life. Doesn't mean I can quilt. Doesn't mean my quilts aren't beautiful. Just means I do them a little differently that some people. But if you read this Board a lot, I'll bed you'll see that there are lots more people like us, who need "assistive devices" with their quilting, than people who can just take off and spontaneously quilt gorgeous motifs right out of their head! That's an art form in and of itself, and we are not all so gifted.
Happy Quilting!