I took the advice of someone on this board & drew my maple leaf design over & over with a pencil on the back of "trash" paper. Then I traced the design over & over on strips of dissolvable stabilizer. I tried pinning, but I ended up thread basting the strips to my quilt borders. Before I actually started on the quilt, I did several practice runs on extra pieces. I save the batting & backing when I trim quilts for this purpose. Finally, I put needle to quilt. A few look a little mutant, but, hey, no two leaves look alike in nature either. I keep playing & working up to more complicated patterns so hang in there.