Hello and welcome from Michigan! Congratulations on finding a wonderful hobby. It's never too late to start quilting and loving it! I made a grandmother's flower garden and I hand pieced it, but you CAN machine piece a flower garden. However, to get all the hexagons to lay flat and for the seams to fit together well, you should only sew to within 1/4" of the edge of each piece. It's harder to sew that set in seam if the seams are sewn from edge to edge. You picked a hard quilt for your first one, but a pretty one!