Take care of your machine and your machine will take care of you! Clean out the lint fuzzies regularly and oil as recommended by the manufacturer.
Fear NOTHING!! If you see something you like, go for it. I can't tell you how many quilters will walk away from a pattern or design they love because they are "afraid" to do a curved seam or a set in seam (aka Y seam). How many quilters get stuck just doing an all over meander on everything because they are "afraid" they will ruin it by trying something else. In addition to technique, many fear experimenting with color and value and pick out fabrics that are only from the same line so they will go together. Experiment, have fun and have no fear.
Ignore those that say "You can't do that" or "this is the only way to do ...." These people are often referred to as "quilt police".
Expose yourself to as many different ideas about quilting as you can, go to shows, join forums, lurk quilting blogs then you can decide what style you like and want to pursue.
Most importantly (and this is from Angela Walters playbook) don't judge your results by comparing to others. There are some amazing quilt artists out there that have special talents that many of us will never achieve and likewise, some of us out there may just surpass. Judge your work on how you improve from one project to the next, not on how your work looks compared to someone else's.