Welcome to the board. IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) you are absolutely starting the right way with a sampler quilt where each block builds on the skills learned in the previous. By doing a sampler you will learn so many techniques essential to quilt making that no pattern will scare you in the future. Set in Y seam no problem, curve, you will laugh in the face of curves, template blocks and rotary cutting shortcut... you will have those down as well. It seems way too many people start out with easy patterns but then are too afraid to try more complex ones. I started with a sampler and I am always thrilled to hear other newbies starting the same way. I also hand quilted mine but now I am a LA quilter. Here is a link to a photo I posted of my very first quilt.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...t-t107423.html
I think a two color sampler will work as well as black/white and red. Both would be stunning. Here is a google search I did of black white and red sampler quilts and it returned one done in just red and cream. So 2 color quilts totally work and ones that were made a century ago are prized heirlooms now.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&....0.jGSpjF18mj4