While watching Youtube videos helps you learn the machine path for continuous line quilting the best practice, aside from actually quilting is drawing the motifs you want to quilt. Go out and buy yourself a whiteboard and whiteboard markers or utilize 50% off coupons for places like JoAnnes, Hobby Lobby or Michaels and go to the drawing dept and buy big pads of inexpensive newsprint style paper. If you have a local newspaper, they sometimes give away the ends of the newsprint rolls. Then draw, draw, draw. Keep them handy next to the TV so when you sit to watch TV you can sketch and doodle. You will get amazingly adept in no time what so ever.
Here is a great link to Carla Barrett's blog when she did feather worksheets. Wonderful rescource. Print out those pages and practice.
http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com...ksheet-series/
Your brain will totally remember and it will come as natural as signing your name. Oh another LAer here on the board recommends writing the alphabet with your longarm in cursive. That is another good trick.