Another consideration may be the type of batting to practice with, I just completed a quilt with a poly batt that was suppose to be low loft, didn't enjoy working with it at all, it seemed to have lots of loft, and my stitching looked very irregular compared to when I use warm and natural which doesn't have the loft, sort of stays put, and the stitches turn out nice and even.
All the points brought up by the above members are great to follow too.