Thank you all again for your kind words
It really was my first try! I learned how to lower the dogs on my machine too! My machine is a Janome 7318, so nothing special but I only learned to sew when I got it in January. (Sitch length 0, Tension 2, poly thread in top and bobbin)
I think I just got lucky, honestly. I had read that you shouldn't go too slow with the pedal nor too fast, and definitely don't move your hands too quickly. Ended up with my foot making the machine go a little faster than I was really ready for, but trying to remind my hands to not freak out and go fast. And I kept repeating in my head "slow and curvy, slow and curvy!" All the videos I've seen, quilters have gone either in rows or columns, and I couldn't manage to get myself to do that, so I just generally tried to go in a direction where the meandering wanted to go
I did keep checking the back though for those loops that I read about and didn't really see any. Generally, the stitches are supposed to be shorter than for normal SID or piecing, right?