Welcome from Nevada! This Board is a good place to be a Newbie. We were all one once! When I first started quilting (I had been a sewer) I learned tons about it from here, and on-line. I was so overwhelmed by the piecing that I had a long arm quilter actually quilt my quilts. Sometimes, I still do, on King sized quilts, but most of the time I do it myself. Leave yourself space to learn all the steps, if you can. It took me a while to get the hang of piecing and I will forever be working on that. If I'd had to learning piecing and quilting at the same time, I'd have given up. It took me a while to get the knack of quilting down. When you're thinking about either not finishing a quilt top, or finishing the top but leaving it unquilted because you're just sick of working on it, send it out and have done with it. Quilting gets easier as you go along. Everyone gets a little discouraged in the beginning, or at least I did! LOL! Good luck to you!