Your quilt is lovely. I hand quilt using W&N all the time. You'll love the Thimblelady thimble. I, too, started with the plastic one but have moved on to the stainless steel. I have used her longer needles and do like them but find I have move control with smaller needles. I use Roxanne #11's most of the time. Sometimes #10's and sometimes #12's. If you can only manage 1-2 stitches at a time, there is nothing wrong with that. There's a ton of seams in that quilt and those are painful no matter what. I would persevere with what you have. Just work on it a bit at a time. Quilting shouldn't be a race, it should be an activity that you enjoy the process.