Originally Posted by Dolphyngyrl

Buy cheap muslin, buy batting, cut into reasonable sized squares like 14x14 or slightly bigger, I use stencils and pounce but you can also use paper to make your own stencil by removing thread from needle, print out your design on computer paper, sew through it, use ounce on paper. This way you are practicing and not ruining a quilt top. Just dive in. No one is great at it in the beginning, but you will get better with time. Take classes too. I like ann petersen on craftsy.com, she is awesome. She also answers questions very quickly. Patsy thompson also has some great tutorials online. She is teaching at road2ca quilt show this week which has me excited. Another good resource that I am currently using to learn is preprinted quilt panels shown here, just scroll to the bottom
http://www.ericas.com/quilting/tools/skillbuilder.htm