I recently purchased a longarm also (Handi Quilter Avanti). They set it up for me and gave me a quick lesson. They said to practice free motion first and once that is mastered move on to pantographs. Well, I could not for the life of me do very good free motion. So, I attempted a pantograph on a charity quilt and that seemed so much easier to me. I have now done 3 charity quilts with different pantographs and finally ventured on to two of my own quilts. I also used pantographs on those. I suggest you go on the Handi Quilter web site. They have lots of tutorials - the one on thread and tension is so very helpful. You don't have to have a Handi Quilter to benefit from their tutorials. They are video tutorials or pdf files - however you choose to open them. Lots of different ones. Good luck - you will get more comfortable as you go.