Practice Makes Perfect (or at least that's what my Mother always said)

I have been practicing my machine applique' this evening. I want to applique candy wrappers onto my table runner. I usually needle turn as I enjoy it and as I've always been horrible at machine applique. I read this wonderful tutorial on Sew, Momma, Sew by Elizabeth and thought I'd try to work on this skill. Of course my table runner is to be using up my stash and I have to say the entire thing so far was from my stash but I didn't have any light heat and bond or any stabilizer to do the machine quilting. Since I REALLY like this table runner, I want the applique to be really nice. So I bought what I needed. Tonight I made two little coasters to practice my applique. I knew this was probably going to bomb so I used a different color bobbin until the thread ran out. No sense wasting anything (wait, except the entire thing will go in the trash until I work it all out!!!!). So on the picture you can see where I changed the bobbin thread to match. I'm using embroidery thread which is very silky and thin and it kept breaking. I don't think I'm using the correct needle for the thread (one more thing to buy, LOL!). I like the look of the thread, though. I also have no idea how to go around the corners. Maybe my stitches are too wide, too? I've got to go back and study that tutorial some more. I'm too frustrated to work on it any more tonight.
The other problem I am having is the lighting in my sewing room. The room is very small, maybe 5x8? But the lighting (here's the picture) is terrible (not to mention TOTALLY NOT my style). I do have a little desk lamp on my sewing table and that helps but I really need some better lighting. I guess task lighting is what would be perfect but there is only one outlet in the room and I'm already taxing the outlet. We do have a great electrician......