Welcome from another newbie quilter, also! I went to my local quilting store and signed up for a beginner's quilting class. Meets once a week for four weeks and tonight is week three (we're going to be making our quilt sandwich and starting the simple machine quilting tonight).
I had sewn clothing and other household items for years and had tried quilts before, but they just didn't come out. Things I've learned so far:
Measure, measure, measure! For example - when doing a "border strip", in the past I would just put a strip of material on and sewed it - then cut off the extra. Now I now to measure the parts of the quilt I want to border and cut the border strip to the average size and make it fit. Now my border strips are nice and even!