I think almost everyone who gets a longarm/midarm setup sits frozen in fear for quite a while! I needed some form of structured approach and also did nothing but practice on sandwiches, making little progress and too fearful of ruining a top UNTIL!!!!
Until I found Michael Quilts on Youtube. His series on ruler work was the perfect "in" for me. I got his practice top, bought every single one of his rulers for my Christmas gift to myself, and followed along, then used a charity quilt to practice all the designs and begin freehand work.
His instructions on loading the longarm and how to approach basting were fabulous. Check his site out!
https://www.youtube.com/@michael.quilts