One of the ladies in my small group is an improvisational quilter. Her blocks are similar but do not exactly match. Depending on what she is doing, her seams don't necessarily match. She has a great eye for color, loves to have a sense of movement, and her quilts are always gorgeous.
I'm a bit more precise/perfectionist/OCD whatever you wish to call me. But I'm also dealing with progressive vision loss. My best quilts are probably behind me, but I have years of quilting ahead of me (I hope!). I'm trying different styles like string quilts where matching isn't so important. I use techniques now that I used to call "fabric wasteful" like making half square triangles by taking two squares, drawing a line down the middle and sewing on that line, cutting off the excess, instead of cutting triangles and piecing them together "properly". Because I can't read rulers well any more, I make a lot of templates and what I call "snubs" which is a template of what to cut off rather than what to keep.
But my biggest advice for new quilters is to work really hard at a consistent seam allowance. A basic 9-patch is probably not what drew you in, but it is a great thing to use to work on those matching seams and seam allowance. I really stress what I call "driving practice" to new quilters. Learn your machine, develop your hand/eye coordination, and learn that seam allowance! You don't get to drive the Indy 500 with a learner's permit. When I first started quilting I was self-taught, it was before rotary cutters, I came from a garment construction background and I used a 1/2" seam for years as 1/4" seemed so impossibly tiny.
Been quilting some 40 years now, and while some projects have gone together easily and well, I've never made a perfect quilt either. I believe I can/could... but LOL never had to add a mistake, those just happen naturally. But what I've learned is how to work around those issues and make a quilt of lasting beauty and comfort. For me the end goal is a usable quilt, not a wall hanging.
Realize that being close up with your project magnifies its flaws to you. Step back, let some time pass and it will all be just fine. It's that thing Sandy said early in the thread, if you can't notice the flaw from 6 feet away from a galloping horse, there is no flaw! And as one of my other small group members says friends don't look for flaws, they look for love and they see the love
