I do love the Westalee Templates and am teaching classes at my LQS. Quilting gloves help a ton! I like the "Machingers" best -- they fit tight and breathe. We're finding that polyester thread works better when doing ruler work. Cotton gets more skipped stitches. Also, use a top-stitch needle, size 90/14. When starting out, my students have a hard time slowing down with their hands and speeding up with the foot pedal. If you've got the push button feed control feature on your machine, you can set the speed of the machine, and not worry about controlling the speed with your foot. Then you can concentrate on controlling your hands to get a more consistent stitch length.