Well, I just jumped right in and decided that I was going to quilt and learn as I went. My first quilt was the one that had all the grandmother's pillow cases. The stitches are not all even (but I tried) and it took me almost 2 years but in the meantime, I would create other quilts, machine in the ditch with a number of them; stitched in the ditch AND hand quilted some of the blocks on each of those. My motto is "I am having so much fun learning and doing the best I can!" - that works for me. I made 8 Christmas runners and hand-quilted all of them and NOT one person complained about a stitch too big or a stitch too small - they just loved the fact that I took the time to make them a gift by hand. So, don't be paralyzed - life is too too too short to spend it that way. Enjoy the fun and the challenge of quilting.