You have received great advice from everyone, and I agree with all of it. In addition to cutting and sewing accurately, the one thing that will help a lot is to either ALWAYS hold your thread tails at the start of a seam or put four stitches in a scrap of fabric, leave it attached, sew on air for one stitch, and then start your seam.
Join a guild, hang out at the quilt shop, and find a quilting buddy that is more experienced than you. I have 24 years of quilt-making experience and I wish you were close as I would gladly take you under my wing. (I'm in Western Mass/Northern Connecticut should anyone be interested.)
Last edited by cricket_iscute; 11-21-2013 at 12:35 PM.