Hi Denise,
I totally get where you're coming from. I bought the Janome Artistic in July and for 2 months it sat there, just intimidating me. I had a lot of tension problems at first and took it back to the dealer. He fixed my tension and gave me a 4 hour class. He used wide muslin, drew some blocks and I worked on freehand stuff. When I got home, with my tension still intact, I bought a laser and a couple of simple pantographs. LOVE PANTOGRAPHS!!! It's hard to keep an eye on the quilt when working from the back of the machine, but I still think pantographs are going to be the easiest for me. Maybe once I start feeling good about these I'll try some ruler work.
Good luck. The Crown Jewel looks like a really nice machine!
Julie