Thank you for the words of experience. I understand muscle memory so I'll get some backings to use for front and back and just keep at it.
I'll get some nice pantos that I would be happy with doing too.
Why was I making mistakes?
hadn't thought it out well enough so I wasn't clear on how to move from section to section
couldn't see the line I was following from certain angles when the machine blocked my view
going too fast
All of those are correctable. One thing that may help is getting some micro-handles. Being so far away from the work and trying to do an echo quilting is like trying to draw while holding the pencil by the eraser.