Practice, practice, practice

In the beginning learning to quilt my projects was always intimidating.  One great practice piece I did was to quilt a design by following the fabrics printed pattern.  I purchased this yellow and blue fabric that matched my kitchen/dining room colors and just followed around the floral design.

Being a table runner made the size manageable and  easy to maneuver on my sewing machine.  Since I just followed around the designs it was fun.  I just decided how detailed I wanted to get with my quilting.  In fact, after I got the hang of it I went back to where I started and quilted in more details. This practice piece did wonders for learning to move in all directions.  It also had points, curves and circles to move around.  With only a couple dollars investment if it didn't work I wasn't out of a lot of money.
Since quilting this table runner on my sewing machine I have purchased a long arm quilter. I feel that this type of practice  to move around on your quilt has helped me with my overall quilting.  I can draw pretty good curves, circles and points on my longarm.