You are so wise to practice on something small before you work on something larger! I have a sketch pad that I keep handy and I practice in there before I try something new. It creates muscle memory in your hands and in your brain. I guarentee you that your machine quilting will look far better than your hand drawn lines. I always think I will never be able to make a design look like it should, then I get on the machine and find out it's so much easier to quilt a design than to draw the design.